What Is The Hungry Ghost Festival?

Honoring dead ancestors is a tradition found across cultures—think Mexico’s Día de los Muertos or Japan’s Obon festival. But few observances are as vivid as the Hungry Ghost Festival, which originated in China but has spread widely to Chinese-speaking communities across much of Asia and the wider global Chinese diaspora. It’s believed that the gates of the underworld swing open for a month, letting restless spirits wander among the living. Families and communities pull out the stops to welcome, feed and comfort them. Equal parts reverent and eerie, the festival offers a striking glimpse into how Taoist and Buddhist communities throughout Asia view death, the afterlife and how best to honor and commemorate the departed.

The Hungry Ghost Festival is one of Asia’s most dramatic ways of honoring the dead. For those who celebrate, it’s a time when hungry—and sometimes angry—spirits return to the earthly realm in search of solace. To appease them, the living perform rituals meant to show respect and provide comfort. People leave offerings of food and incense and burnt paper effigies of money, cars, TVs and other valuables. Neighborhoods come alive with a wide range of performances and events that turn remembrance into a shared spectacle. 

The festival peaks on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, usually falling in August or September on the western calendar. But the entire seventh lunar month—often called “Ghost Month”—is believed to be a time when spirits roam freely, with rituals and gatherings happening all month. 

Widely celebrated in China and other Chinese-speaking countries like Singapore and Taiwan, the Hungry Ghost Festival is also observed in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where there are significant Chinese populations. Related festivals happen in Vietnam—where it is known as the Vu Lan festival—and Thailand, where it is called Phi Ta Khon and held earlier in the year. The tradition has also traveled across the Chinese diaspora. In San Francisco, for example, the Chinese Culture Center notes that such festivals once offered “a sense of peace” to early immigrants “grappling with grief, generational traumas and the ache of familial separation” amid migrations, wrongful deaths and exclusions. 

The festival has roots in China, in both Taoism and Buddhism—with each faith offering its own interpretation—often mixed with Chinese folklore. Taoist beliefs center on appeasing spirits and honoring the three deities said to govern human fate: the rulers of heaven, earth and water. During Ghost Month, Taoist priests perform rituals and offer food to the ghosts, while worshippers flock to temples to repent and pray for happiness and freedom from misfortune.

Buddhist tradition emphasizes filial piety—the duty to honor and care for elders and ancestors. A well-known legend tells of a monk named Mu Lian, who ventured into the underworld to save his suffering mother, who had been sent to hell for consuming meat as a vegetarian. Only through prayers and food offerings was he able to help ease her torment. The story helped enshrine the practice of feeding hungry ghosts as an act of compassion and devotion.

Celebrations revolve around offerings, from plates of fruit, meat and sweets to incense. Many burn paper offerings—usually joss paper folded in the shape of money or luxury goods—so spirits can receive them and enjoy prosperity in the afterlife. The fires can reach bonfire proportions.

Beyond offerings, the festivals spill into the streets. Stage performances, puppet shows, lion dances, auctions and street banquets transform entire neighborhoods into open-air stages for ghostly visitors and human spectators alike. The shows, often presented in pop-up bamboo stages, depict stories from folklore and mythology, and it's customary to leave open seats up front for the spirit guests. In Taiwan, a roaming dance of the "Eight Generals" showcases performers in fearsome face paint and elaborate costumes who stride, stomp and gesture in precise, ritualized movements to subdue wandering ghosts. These ghostbusters blend theater and spirituality as they confront evil spirits and safeguard the community.

At the same time, Ghost Month also comes with taboos: Many people avoid weddings, house moves or big purchases during that time of year, fearing they might attract bad luck. 

At its heart, the Hungry Ghost Festival expresses a deep sense of obligation to ancestors and spirits. For Buddhists, caring for ancestors builds good karma. For Taoists, appeasing them safeguards the living from misfortune. Beyond religion, the rituals reflect Confucian values of filial piety, loyalty and respect. Ultimately, the festival underscores a shared belief: that the boundary between living and dead is permeable, and that remembrance, expressed through ritual and celebration, shapes both worlds.