Zhongyuan Festival: The Chinese July 15th Festival, from ancestor worship and Obon to Zhongyuan traditions

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The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is called "Zhongyuan Festival" or "July and a Half" in many parts of China. If we only understand it as the "Ghost Festival", we will actually miss a more important aspect of this festival: it is related to the ancient traditions of autumn sacrifice and ancestor worship, and has also absorbed the Taoist concept of "Zhongyuan" and the Buddhist tradition of Obon. Later, rich customs such as ancestor worship, popularization, releasing river lanterns, and inviting family members have developed in different regions. The reason it has truly lasted for over a thousand years is not due to mysterious legends, but to how Chinese people face death, remember loved ones, maintain family relationships, and how they integrate "remembering the past" into the order of life throughout the year.

I. What is the Ghost Festival: Why is it celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month?

The Zhongyuan Festival is usually held on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, and in some areas on the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month, so it is often directly referred to as "July and a half" by the people. July is the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. In traditional agricultural societies, a number of crops have already ripened. The ancients would pay homage to their ancestors with their new harvests, thank the land, and report the harvest to their ancestors. According to data from the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network, the formation of the Zhongyuan Festival is closely related to ancient autumn sacrifices and ancestor worship. Later, it was gradually combined with the July 15th ceremony of Taoism and Buddhism, eventually forming the composite festival we see today.China Intangible Cultural Heritage Website

Therefore, the Ghost Festival was not suddenly "invented" on a certain day, and it is difficult to explain it by a single religion. A more accurate understanding is that the original seasonal ancestor worship in agrarian society provided its social foundation, Taoism gave it the name "Zhongyuan" and the religious interpretation of local officials forgiving sins, and the Buddhist Obon tradition reinforced the theme of "repaying kindness to relatives and recommending the deceased" on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. These three traditions have intertwined over a long period of folk life, gradually forming the festival customs we are familiar with today.

II. Where does the term "Zhongyuan" come from? The Taoist Trinity System

The name "Zhongyuan" itself comes from Taoism. Taoism refers to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, and the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month as the Upper Yuan, the Middle Yuan, and the Lower Yuan, respectively, in accordance with the belief systems of Heavenly Officials, Earthly Officials, and Water Officials: the Upper Yuan is associated with Heavenly Officials bestowing blessings, the Middle Yuan is associated with Earthly Officials forgiving sins, and the Lower Yuan is associated with Water Officials relieving misfortune. The China Intangible Cultural Heritage Digital Museum's explanation of the Hong Kong Chao Ren Meng Lan Sheng Club also clearly refers to the 15th day of July as "Zhongyuan" in the Taoist sense.China Intangible Cultural Heritage Website - Chao Ren Meng Lan Sheng Hui

In this system, Zhongyuan Day carries religious significance of examining good and evil, forgiving sins, and relieving misfortune. Later, Taoist priests held rituals such as fasting, chanting scriptures, and recommending the dead around the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, and these practices gradually entered folk festival life. It should be noted that the Taoist "pardon of sins by local officials" belongs to the religious belief system and cannot be regarded as a verifiable historical fact; However, it did profoundly influence the way Chinese people understand the fifteenth of July and shaped later ritual language such as "popularizing" and "giving orphans".

III. Obon and "Linking Eyes to Save Mother": Why Buddhism Also Values the July 15th Festival

Another important tradition of the Ghost Festival comes from the Buddhist Ullambon festival. The Ullambhana Sutra tells the story of Vajrayana who wanted to save his deceased mother: He saw that his mother was suffering and could not be saved by his own strength, so the Buddha taught him to offer food to the monks on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the day when the monks were free, and to return the merit to his parents and relatives. The core of the scripture is not to create fear, but to emphasize repaying one's parents' kindness in raising them and expressing filial piety through the merits of spiritual practice in the monastic community.The Buddha's Discourse on the Obon Sutra

After the Obon tradition was introduced to China, it resonated strongly with a social culture that already attached great importance to filial piety and ancestor worship. The story of "Mulian saving his mother" later spread widely through scripture lectures, literary changes, operas, and folk tales, gradually becoming one of the most influential stories of the July 15th festival. At the same time, the Chinese people did not abandon their original ancestor worship customs because of this, but instead combined the Buddhist concepts of recommending the dead and repaying kindness with family sacrifices.

Therefore, it is inaccurate to simply say that the Ghost Festival "comes from Buddhism" or, conversely, to say that "Obon is just another name for the Ghost Festival". A more reasonable explanation is that the Buddhist Obon, the Taoist Zhongyuan, and the folk July ancestor worship initially had different ideological origins, but they influenced each other in China's long-term social practice, eventually forming overlapping festival cultures within the same period.

IV. The True Core: Ancestor Worship, Remembrance, and "Remembering the Past"

At the level of ordinary families, the most enduring core of the Ghost Festival is actually ancestor worship. In many places, seasonal fruits, meals, and drinks are prepared to offer sacrifices to ancestral tablets or cemeteries; Some places emphasize "inviting ancestors," "paying respects to ancestors," and "sending off ancestors," while other families only conduct simple memorial services. The Zhongyuan Festival custom in Laiwu, Shandong Province, is represented by "inviting family members," which combines ancestor worship with family reunion through stages such as "inviting, offering, worshipping, sending off, and gathering." This custom was later included in the national intangible cultural heritage representative project.Hubei Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Website

From a cultural psychological perspective, the Zhongyuan Festival addresses a very simple question: after a person dies, how can the living continue to live with memories? Traditional societies transform longing into rituals that can be participated in together through fixed festivals. Preparing meals, arranging offerings, telling stories of ancestors, and having family gatherings may seem like everyday activities, but they allow family memories to be passed down from generation to generation.

"Remembering the past" therefore explains why this festival has existed for so long better than "imagining ghosts and monsters". The so-called ancestor worship is not only an expression of sorrow, but also a way to confirm where one comes from, how one's family continues, and what responsibilities one should bear between people. The "filial piety" in the Ghost Festival is not only directed at deceased elders, but also reminds people in real life to cherish their loved ones who are still alive.

V. Why Release River Lanterns: From Remembrance to Public Memory

Releasing river lanterns is one of the most visually symbolic customs of the Ghost Festival. Traditional river lanterns are mostly made in the shape of lotus flowers, lotus flowers, etc. After lighting the lanterns and candles, they are placed in rivers and lakes. Folk beliefs often attribute it to meanings such as "illuminating the underworld," "guiding the way," and "guiding the dead." From a socio-cultural perspective, it also transforms private remembrance into collective rituals in public spaces.

The River Lantern Festival in Ziyuan County, Guangxi, is particularly representative. The area is located along the Zijiang River waterway. In the past, water transport was developed, but this also came with the risk of death for river engineers, sailors, and drainage workers. The local release of river lanterns during the Zhongyuan period not only serves as a tribute to ancestors but also as a way to mourn those who died on the water. The Ziyuhe Lantern Festival was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage representative project in 2014. Its materials clearly record a complete set of folk customs, including ancestor worship, lantern making, lantern release, and wishing making.China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network - Resources River Lantern Festival

This shows that the same festival custom can carry completely different historical memories in different places. River lanterns can be part of a religious ceremony or a town's way of commemorating its waterway history, accident victims, and local community. Looking at river lanterns again today, it is more appropriate to understand them as a symbolic language for traditional society to process the memory of death, rather than treating the folk explanation of "illuminating the way for the dead" as a reality.

VI. Pudu, Giving to Orphans, and Local Society: The Zhongyuan Festival is not just about honoring one's ancestors.

The Zhongyuan Festival also has a very special characteristic: its recipients of care often expand from "original ancestors" to the unworshipped deceased. It is popularly known as "popularization" or "giving orphans away". The Hong Kong Chao Ren Meng Lan Sheng Club is a typical example. Local Holy Festival activities often include setting up altars to worship ancestors and offer prayers for the deceased, as well as community activities such as divine skill operas, peaceful rice, and lucky item competitions. It retains both Buddhist and Taoist rituals, while also bearing a strong sense of immigrant society and neighborhood community.China Intangible Cultural Heritage Website - Chao Ren Meng Lan Sheng Hui

From a social function perspective, "sacrificing orphans" embodies a concept that expands from family ethics to public ethics: not only commemorating ancestors related to oneself by blood, but also taking care of those who have died who are symbolically "unsacrificed". When introducing the Zhongyuan Festival, Chinese intangible cultural heritage protection agencies summarize this tradition as a combination of commemorating ancestors, shedding light on the underworld to save orphans, and generosity.China Intangible Cultural Heritage Website

Understanding these customs today does not require accepting all religious interpretations of them, but it allows us to see how traditional communities use festivals to build mutual aid, charity, public performances, and shared memories.

VII. Why are they different from place to place: July 14th and July 15th and local festivals

China has a vast territory, and there has never been a completely unified national custom for celebrating the Ghost Festival. In most places, the 15th of July is the center, while in some areas, the 14th of July is the main day of worship. Some places emphasize family sacrifices, some places emphasize grave sacrifices, some places emphasize river lanterns or sea lanterns, and some places form a popular celebration that lasts for many days.

For example, in the past, the "July and a Half" festival in Guidong, Hunan Province, mainly involved family-by-family ancestor worship, which is different from the strong clan-based tomb sweeping during the Qingming Festival. An old custom along the coast of Weihai, Shandong, once included releasing sea lanterns to mourn those who died at sea. Guangxi's resources form a large-scale river lantern festival; Hong Kong's Teochew community has developed the Menglan Shenghui, which spans blocks. These differences demonstrate that the Ghost Festival is not a rigid "standard template," but rather a festival that various regions have continuously adapted according to their own production methods, geographical environment, clan structure, and religious traditions.Hunan Provincial People's Government Weihai Municipal People's Government

The same applies to food. The Ghost Festival does not have a nationally unified seasonal food like Dragon Boat Festival zongzi and Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes. Some places prepare duck, chicken, pastries, new rice, fruits, or home-style meals, but these are more local customs or sacrificial structures and cannot be simply said to mean that "the whole country eats a certain type of food during the Ghost Festival". When understanding traditional festivals, respecting these regional differences is more in line with historical reality than forcibly summarizing a "standard menu".

8. Is the "Ghost Festival" the true essence of the Ghost Festival?

"Ghost Festival" is a common folk name for the Zhongyuan Festival, but it tends to overly mystify the festival. The sayings that "the gates of hell open" in the seventh lunar month, and that one should not go out at night, pat one's shoulder, or hang clothes to dry, are widely circulated in different places and in modern online culture. However, these are folk concepts, local taboos, or legends of later generations. They are not unified traditions that must be followed during the Ghost Festival, nor are they rules that have been verified by facts.

Packaging the Ghost Festival only as "the most sinister day" obscures its most stable cultural structure: ancestor worship, repaying kindness, remembrance, giving alms to orphans, and family reunion. The so-called narratives of ghosts and spirits can be viewed as objects of folklore research, but fear should not be taken as the entire meaning of the festival.

In fact, the summary of the Zhongyuan Festival in Chinese intangible cultural heritage materials emphasizes filial piety, ancestor worship, charity, community cohesion, and the inheritance of local culture, rather than a "complete list of taboos". If you want to introduce the Zhongyuan Festival to someone unfamiliar with Chinese culture, the best starting point is not to glorify the supernatural, but to explain how traditional Chinese society uses a fixed date to discuss life and death, kinship, memory, and ethics.

9. What are the differences between the Zhongyuan Festival and the Qingming Festival and the Cold Clothing Festival?

These festivals are all related to ancestor worship, but the timing and ritual focus are not exactly the same.

Qingming Festival falls in spring and is one of the twenty-four solar terms. Later, it incorporated traditions such as tomb sacrifice, cold food, and spring outings. Today, the most familiar Qingming Festival activities are sweeping tombs, laying flowers, tidying up cemeteries, and going on spring outings. Therefore, it emphasizes visiting cemeteries to commemorate the occasion in real space.

During the late summer and early autumn, the Zhongyuan period, centered on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, not only emphasized family ancestor worship but also traditions such as the Yulan basin, Pudu, orphan giving, and river lanterns. Therefore, the scope of worship objects and rituals was often wider than during the Qingming Festival.

The Cold Clothing Festival usually falls around the first day of the tenth lunar month. After the cold season begins, the symbolic meaning of "giving away cold clothes" becomes more pronounced. There are records of old customs in Yantai, Shandong and other places such as visiting graves, burning paper towels and cutting winter clothes every October.Relevant local folk customs materials in Yantai City

Together, the three constitute part of the Chinese ancestor worship culture at the age of 18, but it cannot be simply said which is "more authentic" or which completely replaces which. They are embedded in different seasonal nodes of spring, autumn, and winter, maintaining the commemorative relationship between the living and their ancestors in different ways.

10. How to celebrate the Ghost Festival today: Preserve remembrance and reduce risks.

Modern society can still retain the cultural significance of the Ghost Festival, but the way it is expressed can change with lifestyle. Families can pay homage to their ancestors, organize old photos, tell family stories, prepare a familiar meal, or lay flowers at the cemetery. Communities and cultural institutions can also pass on traditions through river lantern displays, intangible cultural heritage activities, and local history explanations.

At the same time, traditional practices such as burning incense, paper towels, and lighting open flames of river lanterns may lead to fires, air pollution, or garbage problems under conditions of urban environment, forest fire prevention, and water environmental protection. In recent years, many places have promoted methods such as flower-sweeping memorial services, online memorial services, and smokeless memorial services. Changing the medium does not mean cutting off tradition, because the core of sacrifice is not a specific object, but rather remembrance, gratitude, and commemoration itself.

If we were to give the most appropriate explanation for the modern Ghost Festival, we could perhaps say that it is a day of the year dedicated to "remembering". People remember those who have passed away, they remember where they came from, and they remember that life is limited. Therefore, they should cherish the kinship and responsibility in reality even more.

Conclusion: What did July 15th truly leave behind?

The reason why the Ghost Festival is complex is precisely because it is not a single-line development tradition. Ancient autumn festivals and ancestor worship provided social fertile ground. Taoism gave it the name "Zhongyuan" and the belief in the three officials. The Buddhist tradition of the Obon reinforced the theme of repaying kindness to relatives and recommending the deceased. People in various places developed specific forms such as river lanterns, sea lanterns, universal lanterns, and invitations to family weddings according to their own living environments.

If we summarize it with just the word "Ghost Festival," what we see is fear and taboo; If you broaden your horizons, you will find that it is really discussing a very universal human experience: how we face the departure of loved ones, how we preserve the memories of our families and local communities, and how we remind ourselves to cherish the present through rituals.

This may be why the Ghost Festival is still worth introducing and understanding today. It does not require modern people to believe in the entire worldview of the ancients, but rather to show us how the Chinese people have expressed grief, filial piety, gratitude, and reverence for life throughout their long history.

Key References

Cover image:miyou_ 77 / Pexels(Night view of traditional temples in Chongqing, Pexels marked Free to use)

Zhongyuan Festival: The 15th day of the seventh lunar month for Chinese people, from ancestor worship and Obon to Zhongyuan tradition.