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Ghost Festival
The Ghost Festival or Hungry Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival in Taoism and the Yulanpen Festival in Buddhism, is a traditional festival held in certain East Asia, East and Southeast Asian countries. According to the Lunar calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in parts of southern China).Chow 2015 In Chinese culture, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day or (especially in Taiwan) Pudu ( zh, c=普渡, poj=Phó͘-tō͘, s=, t=, p=Pǔdù) and the seventh month is generally regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of deceased ancestors, come out from the Underworld, lower realm (''diyu'' or ''preta''). Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (or Tomb Sweeping Day, in spring) and Double Ninth Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, during Ghost Festival, the deceased are believ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ulkāmukha Pretarāja
Ulkāmukha Pretarāja (Sanskrit: उल्कामुख प्रेतराज; Chinese language, Chinese: 焰口鬼王; pinyin: ''Yànkǒu Guǐwáng''; rōmaji: ''Enkō Kiō'') is a deity within Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions, particularly prevalent in East Asian Buddhism. He is considered a manifestation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin), specifically appearing in a wrathful form to aid beings trapped in the Preta , preta realm (pretaloka), the realm of hungry ghosts. Etymology The Sanskrit term "Ulkāmukha" translates to "flaming mouth" or "torch-faced," reflecting his characteristic appearance. "Pretarāja" means "king of the pretas." His name thus signifies his role as the ruler of the hungry ghosts and his ability to consume and transform their suffering. Iconography Ulkāmukha Pretarāja is typically depicted like a hungry ghost, with a fearsome appearance, often with multiple arms and heads, symbolizing his power and ability to overcome obstacles. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sat Thai
Sat Thai (, ; also spelled Sart Thai) is a traditional Thai mid-year festival, held on the new moon at the end of the tenth lunar month. It has many features of animism, attributing souls or spirits to animals, plants and other entities. Etymology ''Sat'' ( or , RTGS ''sat'') comes from Pali , which means 'autumnal'. It specifically refers to the season "when the grain is in the ear": rice grain panicles droop as seeds reach full size and fills with milky starch in the days before harvest time. Fruits also are in the bud. ''Sat Thai'' is known as such to differentiate it from the Ghost Festival, known in Thai as ''Sat Chin''. Observance ''Sat Thai'' Day occurs at the end of Thai lunar calendar Moon 10, that is, waning day 15, evening (). This is a New Moon and so is a Buddhist Sabbath; but not one of the ''Special Sabbaths'', and not one of the secular public holidays in Thailand. It occurs midway past the traditional Thai New Year and near the autumnal equinox. It an occas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Ninth Festival
The Double Ninth Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday observed on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar. According to Wu Jun, it dates back to the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 AD). According to the ''I Ching'', ''nine'' is a yang number; the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar (or double nine) has extra '' yang'' (a traditional Chinese spiritual concept) and is thus an auspicious date. Hence, the day is also called "Double Yang Festival" (). It is customary to climb a mountain, drink chrysanthemum liquor, and wear the ''zhuyu'' () plant ('' Cornus officinalis''). Both chrysanthemum and ''zhuyu'' are considered to have cleansing qualities and are used on other occasions to air out houses and cure illnesses. On this holiday, some Chinese also visit the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects. In Hong Kong and Macau, whole extended families head to ancestral graves to clean them, repaint inscriptions and lay out food offerings suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qingming Festival
The Qingming Festival or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day, Ancestors' Day, the Clear Brightness Festival, or the Pure Brightness Festival), is a traditional Chinese festival observed by ethnic Chinese in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. A celebration of spring, it falls on the first day of the fifth solar term (also called Qingming) of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4, 5 or 6 April in a given year. During Qingming, Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites and make ritual offerings to their ancestors. Offerings would typically include traditional food dishes and the burning of joss sticks and joss paper. The holiday recognizes the traditional reverence of one's ancestors in Chinese culture. The origins o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Preta
''Preta'' (, ''yi dags''), also known as hungry ghost, is the Sanskrit name for a type of supernatural being described in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion as undergoing suffering greater than that of humans, particularly an extreme level of hunger and thirst. They have their origins in Indian religions and have been adopted into East Asian religions via the spread of Buddhism. Preta is often translated into English as " hungry ghost" from the Chinese and East Asian adaptations. In early sources such as the ''Petavatthu'', they are much more varied. The descriptions below apply mainly in this narrower context. The development of the concept of the preta started with just thinking that it was the soul and ghost of a person once they died, but later the concept developed into a transient state between death and obtaining karmic reincarnation in accordance with the person's fate. In order to pass into the cycle of karmic reincarnation, the deceased's family mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diyu
''Diyu'' () is the realm of the dead or "hell" in Chinese mythology. It is loosely based on a combination of the Buddhist concept of Naraka (Buddhism), Naraka, traditional Chinese beliefs about the afterlife, and a variety of popular expansions and reinterpretations of these two traditions. The concept parallels purgatory in certain Christian denominations. Diyu is typically depicted as a subterranean maze with various levels and chambers, to which souls are taken after death to atone for the sins they committed when they were alive. The exact number of levels in Diyu and their associated deities differ between Buddhist and Taoist interpretations. Some speak of three to four "courts"; others mention "Ten Courts of Hell", each of which is ruled by a judge (collectively known as the Ten Yama (East Asia)#Yama in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese mythology, Yama Kings); other Chinese legends speak of the "Eighteen Levels of Hell". Each court deals with a different aspect of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. The concept of an underworld is found in almost every civilization and "may be as old as humanity itself". Common features of underworld myths are accounts of living people making journeys to the underworld, often for some heroic purpose. Other myths reinforce traditions that the entrance of souls to the underworld requires a proper observation of ceremony, such as the ancient Greek story of the recently dead Patroclus haunting Achilles until his body could be properly buried for this purpose. People with high social status were dressed and equipped in order to better navigate the underworld. A number of mythologies incorporate the concept of the soul of the deceased making its own journey to the underworld, with the dead needing to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Culture
Chinese culture () is one of the Cradle of civilization#Ancient China, world's earliest cultures, said to originate five thousand years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia called the Sinosphere as a whole and is extremely diverse, with customs and traditions varying greatly between regions. The terms 'China' and the geographical landmass of 'China' have shifted across the centuries, before the name 'China' became commonplace. Chinese civilization is historically considered a dominant culture of East Asia. Chinese culture exerted profound influence on the philosophy, customs, politics, and traditions of Asia. Chinese characters, Chinese ceramics, ceramics, Chinese architecture, architecture, Chinese music, music, History of Chinese dance, dance, Chinese literature, literature, Chinese martial arts, martial arts, Chinese cuisine, cuisine, Chinese art, arts, Chinese philosophy, philosophy, etiquette, Religion in China, religion, Legalism (Chin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China and who speak a language that is closely related to Gan, a Han Chinese dialect spoken in Jiangxi province. They are differentiated from other southern Han Chinese by their dispersed nature and tendency to occupy marginal lands and remote hilly areas. The Chinese characters for ''Hakka'' () literally mean "guest families". The Hakka have settled in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhejiang, Hainan, and Guizhou in China, as well as in Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Pingtung County, and Kaohsiung City in Taiwan. Their presence is especially prominent in the Lingnan or Liangguang area, comprising the Cantonese-speaking provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. Despite being partly assimilated to the Cantonese-sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Division of the Mongol Empire, its division. It was established by Kublai (Emperor Shizu or Setsen Khan), the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire from the Borjigin clan, and lasted from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese history, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty. Although Genghis Khan's enthronement as Khagan in 1206 was described in Chinese language, Chinese as the Han Chinese, Han-style title of Emperor of China, Emperor and the Mongol Empire had ruled territories including modern-day northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Han style, and the conquest was not complete until 1279 when the Southern Song dynasty was defeated in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunisolar Calendar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, that combines monthly lunar cycles with the solar year. As with all calendars which divide the year into months, there is an additional requirement that the year have a whole number of months (Moon cycles). The majority of years have twelve months but every second or third year is an embolismic year, which adds a thirteenth intercalary, embolismic, or leap month. Lunisolar calendars are lunar calendars but, in contrast to purely lunar calendars such as the Islamic calendar, have additional intercalation rules that reset them periodically into a rough agreement with the solar year and thus with the seasons. Examples The Chinese, Buddhist, Burmese, Assyrian, Hebrew, Jain, traditional Nepali, Hindu, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Vietnamese calendars (in the East Asian Chinese cultural sphere), plus the ancient Hellenic, Coligny, and Babylonian calendars are all lunisolar. Also, some of the ancient pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
