At Mid-Year
Today, July 25th, according to Lunar calendar here, is the first day of the seventh month and it is the begining of the second half of the year. The majority of the people in Taiwan follow folk religion, and they believe that the Gate of Hell and the Underworlds were opened at zero hour of this day to let the denizens out to roam and wander at their wills for a month. It happenens that in 38 years the lunar July this year is a leap-momth, and so, it means that the denizens will have two month-long summer vacation! There is a shrine in Keelung, on the north of Taiwan, which is built in front of a sepulchre full of nameless dry bones, actually symbolically opens and closes a gate so named at the specific times every year. On the 15th, the day of full moon, households of the followers all over will prepare great feasts set at the front doors by the road to feed and entertain those wandering ghosts. After the feast, the ghosts will commance their return trip, or suppose to. This feast of feeding the hungry ghosts coincides with the Buddhists Urabon (the Feast of Lanterns in Japan) which aims at bring relief to one’s dead. Folk religionists here belive that the dead need to be fed regularly and especially on memorial days of deceasing.
Taiwan was a wild island and saw peoples come and go. Those men who came from the opposite shores in China in the 16th centry and on were the dispossessed people seeking for a new home. Different world powers also came to make use of this island for their own benefit. Struggles occured and many people died in the process of colonization. Their remains left unattended which is deeply in conflict with the religious belief of respect and hornor the dead. So, it is most fitting to remember those nameless ghosts and treat them well at least once a year. More than for the reason of afraiding their trick plays, as some one says, for remembering their contribution to the opening of the country. When Chinese gained controll of Taiwan after the WW II, soon they practiced “Clean Field”. The 228 Incident (Feb. 28th, 1946) and the aftermath in which people of Taiwan rose in protest of a corrupt Chinese governer were met with ruthless arrests and killing by the forces sent over from the Central Government in China. The victims were reported to be over a quarter million. The population of Taiwan at the time was just over 6 million. Many just lost and went uncounted even today. Thus, feeding of wandering ghosts has a very poignant meaning in this society.