Continued...
Festivals Page 2
Full-Moon Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival, or Full-moon Festival, is always on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. This festival signals that the year's hard work in the fields will soon end with the coming harvest. Round "moon cakes" must be eaten during this national holiday, as they are symbolic of family unity and togetherness. Pomelos are also eaten on this day as the Chinese word for grapefruit is an homonym for 'protection', expressing the hope that the moon god will give them protection during the coming year. Moon gazing is another essential part of this festival.
Ghost Month (Ghost Festival)
On the first day of the seventh lunar month, the gates of hell are thrown open and the spirits of the dead are allowed a month of feasting and revelry in the world of the living. To ensure that the ghosts enjoy a pleasant vacation, lavish feasts are set out, paper "ghost money" is burned for their use, and Taiwanese operas are performed. There are a number of superstitions that are observed during this month, such as never leaving laundry outside to dry on a clothsline overnight as a ghost might hide in the garments and gain entry into a home that way. Whistling should not be done at night as this might also attract a ghost... The climax of Ghost Month is the Chung Yuan Festival on the 15th of the month, when great sacrificial feasts are layed out in temples across the island and priests chant for the dead. Paper lanterns are released into the waterways to illuminate the way for the abandoned souls and lead them to dry land. The festival ends on the first day of the eight lunar months as the dead return to the underworld, hopefully appeased fpr another year.