Ghosts And The Ghost Festival
Author: Witcoin Miner
Keywords: #ghost, #scary, #festival, #tribute, #exorcism, #animism, #spirit, #dead, #haunt, #mask, #fun, #supernatural
Date: 1437 words
Posted on: 1st December 2020
In the Buddhist country like Thailand, Animism, a belief which assigns a divine spark or spirit to every material thing, retains elements in its culture and the many legends and practices it has absorbed from folkloric traditions. The worlds of spirit or ghost contain energies people cannot always see but often feel. The unseen beings can become an exciting, wonderfully awful part of existence. Many people in Thailand believe in those restless beings trapped between realms and lives, often because of crimes committed in a previous existence. Generally, it is recognized as an existence in the various forms commonly known as ghost.
Thai people respect rather than loathe, fear, deny, or denigrate ghosts or spirits. Especially in agriculturally driven areas in the North and the Northeast, ghost is celebrated as a festival. This festival is known as Phi Ta Khon Festival, taking place for three-day starting from 5th - 7th July. Locals believe that it is the time when the dead come back to life. This tradition in some places inculcates elements from other festivals such as the Rocket Festival from Isan into it.
On the first day of the Phi Ta Khon Festival, the locals make an effort to wake the dead spirits up. They are dancing on the streets in beautiful, yet creepy costumes, participating in fun-filled games and walking in parades. Townspeople dress up in ghost masks. The colorful and vibrant masks are a sight for sore eyes, and can even get pretty scary at times. Legend says that it is meant bad luck to keep the mask after the festival gets over, but as times have changed, people now sell their masks and make good money out of it.
Phi Ta Khon is what was once a children’s festival, kind of like Halloween, has gradually turned out to be an elaborate festival for the artists, and without a doubt, is one of the most enthralling public events. On the second day, the villagers attend Buddhist sermons and perform some meritorious deeds in the nearby temples. It demonstrates a perfect embrace of fun and scary belief with Buddhism.
Ghost Festival is also observed in some other ethnic cultures in the country. In different way of attitude and practice, Ghost Festival means it is time when descendants honor their dead ancestors by burning papier-mâché forms of clothes, gold coins, and other goods of the earthly realm. Symbolic meals are often served to empty seats at the table, one for each of the family’s late relatives. The burnt offering of joss paper, known as ghost money, is also a common tribute. All of this is done to relieve the suffering of the deceased in an attempt to make the afterlife comfortable as possible for family members who have passed. To be contemptuous, some shops in Bangkok are even selling joss paper face masks this year, a special tribute timely needed amid the worldwide spreading #pandemic. This Ghost tradition can be seen as an acknowledgment that however much people venerate their forebears, the dead too suffered from the same great twinges of desire that they do.
The Ghost Festival has got the concept of the Hungry Ghost in an old Buddhist story. In Buddhism, a hungry ghost is known as a Peta, a spiritual being damned to suffer great pangs of intense need in the afterlife for displays of greed, theft, or violence while living. Petas, or Hungry Ghosts, are beings who are tormented by desire that can never be sated. They are often portrayed with tiny mouths and throats and the swollen bellies of the starving, meaning they can never consume enough to ease the suffering of their hungers.
According to Buddhist cosmology, Petas are considered one of the six realms of cyclic existence or Samsara, along with Devas or gods, Asuras or warring gods, Humans, Animals, and Hell beings. The Peta realm is defined by attachment, and the truth that they can never end the suffering of unquenched desire, no matter how much they consume. Only enlightenment can be defined as freeing being from these realms entirely.
Whether or not people believe spirits leave their ghostly realm during the time of the festival, the Ghost Festival can be a great reminder of how desire causes suffering, not only in the afterlife but also in the present moment.
It is a popular story giving an example of the Kammic cause leading to the rebirth of Hungry Ghost, saying a man gave money to his mother to feed monks and beggars while he was off traveling. Instead, she squirreled away the money for herself. Years later, he discovered such actions had landed his mother in Hungry Ghost territory. She had become a Hungry Ghost who could never eat her fill, and her neck had grown too thin because of her stinginess. His first attempts was to provide her food by placing it on the ancestral altar, but it exploded into flame as it touched her lips. He later received an advice from the Lord Buddha the right way to help his mother by means of offering the food to monk and dedicating the accrued merit to her.
The story demonstrate the Law of Kamma working on every being that people reap what they sow. And death itself can do nothing to eliminate the retribution of the deeds. Some families of the dead may care or do nothing to follow up how well their passed-away relatives are. When a family member died, they cried and went to funerals. And they went and did the next thing the next day. Death had nothing to do with what they were doing after that. So the dead trapped in those suffering realms have no chance to receive any help from their previous family.
Some other Buddhist groups practice Buddhism with a mix of pre-existing Animism; they venerate the Lord Buddha as a spirit-like being existing and guarding the families. They put the statute of the Buddha on an altar in their living room and set offerings of coffee to the statue every morning or saying Pali prayers words to the Buddha for protection. Mothers would tell children to keep Buddha’s image in their mind. If Buddha were in the mind and heart, He would protect them from any monster. Some of the kids equated Buddha with the fat dude at Chinese restaurants.
There are kids who believe ghosts are hardly ever seen because they are scared of human being because human is alive, and they are not. Or perhaps, they are shy! That is why there are lots of stories about ghosts to remind human beings of their existence.
Some Buddhist families believe ghosts followed them everywhere they went. Ghosts of parents and relatives and their former selves surrounded them. Some mothers would say to their children: ‘Pray for your grandmother, tell her to help you ace that Math test.’
Moreover, there are evil ghosts out to do people harm; these kinds of spirit take over human’s mind. If it is the case, an exorcist is needed! To perform a successful exorcism, the key is respect and loving-kindness for both the haunted human and the haunting spirits, convincing the spirits, haunting human on this plane, it is time for them to be released by following the smoke to their realm! With the ceremony they can let go and their wish will come true!
In this modern time, Animism still prevails. Many highly educated Thais, along with millions of the rural population, believe in the power of spirits and the tutelary spirits of place. It can be seen elsewhere most homes and businesses host a spirit house, like a miniature temple, where humans honor unseen visitors with flowers, incense, food, and water.
This hybridity of Asian Buddhism and Animism might unnerve practitioners who seek a pure, authentic teaching inherited from pre-modern masters. Western Buddhism on contrary may not interest in supernatural thrills like ghost because Buddhism has been diffused through Enlightenment, romantic, and Protestant thinking. It claims ancient legitimacy while ignoring aspects of the early Buddhist scriptures such as stories of the Buddha’s supernatural powers and the teachings on rebirth. It is a form of Buddhism that de-emphasizes tradition, mythology, and ritual and valorizes psychology, creativity, nature, social engagement, and the affirmation of this life and the present moment. The serious rationalists might find it appealing. When speaking to many generations, it is wiser to be open and welcome the Buddha’s Dhamma in variety of outlook.
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