t’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, I’m not talking about Christmas. It’s the time of year when ghosts and goblins fill our dreams instead of sugar plums, and unearthly things go bump in the night... Halloween. So, sharpen up your carving knives, pick out your favorite pumpkin from the patch and dream up your most bone-chilling costumes because All Hallow’s Eve is just around the corner, and this year, it falls on a Saturday night.
I have spent the past four Halloweens in China, and I have yet to be let down. Bars turned into insane asylums, screenings of hair-raising horror films, a warehouse filled with every evil abomination imaginable, you couldn’t spend a dull Halloween in Beijing if you tried.
This year, my friends and I are turning the Halloween spirit, or spirits, up a notch and throwing our own ghoulish gathering. We didn’t want to go with the obvious theme - Halloween - so we choose to do something with a little more flair - Halloween in Hollywood. The requirements are you dress as your favorite Hollywood performer or character and come ready to party! Complete with enchanted drink specials and a red-carpet Hollywood photo wall, I think the night will be a huge success. However, I am not waiting until Halloween to get into the spirit.
My apartment has been possessed by creepy decorations and spooky seasonal sounds from my Halloween playlist, and every night is a scary movie night in the countdown to October 31. Some of my favorites I watch every year are Hocus Pocus (1993), Beetlejuice (1988) and The Exorcist (1973). I am sure my roommates, who are not the biggest horror fans, are getting a little worried about my mental health watching all these ominous movies and TV shows.
Even with all the parties and events held in Beijing for Halloween, I realized early on that it is not a staple holiday in China like it is in the West. So, I started wondering - in a country as old as China, there must be something similar to the Halloween I am used to celebrating back home.
After lurking deep into some Chinese history, I stumbled upon a very eerie tradition - the Hungry Ghost Festival. It is said that on the first day of the seventh lunar month, Hell opens up and lets out the ghosts of Chinese ancestors. These ghosts roam the Earth hungry for peculiar entertainment and comfort and can be powerful threats to the living.
To thwart the evil entities and their wrath, special ceremonies are held, as well as displays featuring ancient tablets, photos, paintings and sacrificial food. You can also see people everywhere taking to the streets to burn fake money to help fund their ancestral ghosts during this special month. I wonder if they are using WeChat yet in the netherworld. Could you imagine a ghost appearing and asking you to scan their QR code?
Getting back on track, the seventh Lunar month, considered the scariest for thousands of years, comes to a close with another round of ceremonies and offerings before the ghosts are sent back to Hell until the next year. Whew. Good thing the month at least has a happy ending. I sure wouldn’t want to mess with a thousand-year-old hungry ghost who hasn’t eaten for 11 months, especially considering how evil some people can get when they miss a meal!
In my delve into mystical Chinese culture, I also found a few famous ghost stories. In The Tale of Painted Skin (Hua Pi), a fox demon disguises itself as a lovely woman who lures unwary men in as it must have a continuous diet of human hearts to maintain the disguise. Gross, I’d even eat candy corn to avoid that fate!
In another famous tale, Hanged Ghost (Diaosi Gui), victims of suicide or execution will haunt the location where they died, usually appearing as a corpse with a long red tongue hanging out of their mouth, trying to convince passersby to join them in the afterlife. Yikes! Wouldn’t want to meet one of those ghosts in a dark hutong alley!
While China and many other parts of the world have their own spooky traditions or stories to honor the dead, undead or ghostly beings, one thing for sure is that every culture takes a turn celebrating or warding off spirits. While drinking to excess and listening to Michael Jackson’s Thriller might not be the most ceremonious of traditions, I enjoy it. Although, I think my dance moves might be more terrifying than anything else. If you haven’t celebrated Halloween in China yet, hurry up and get your Halloween costumes in order and find a local cackle of friends to go out with this year, as this ghostly holiday will vanish before you can say, “it’s all a bunch of hocus pocus.”
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