Woeful Tradition

So its the start of the lunar seventh month again, and lots of people everywhere around singapore are still into their practices of hungry ghost festival.

I dont understand their motivation behind all this, and why they want to believe in such things. To people like me and some others, it is an unwelcome tradition which i find rather useless. nothing good about it, and lots of bad.

Burning stacks of hell notes, making food offerings, ligthing red candles, shadow puppet shows and halls set up for the purpose of this festival. whats the point behind all this?

Everywhere along the roads and paths, people are burning stacks of hell notes. sometimes in huge burners which is slightly more considerate, but others burn it on the pavement, or even on the grass. I chanced upon just now a gigantic pile of burnt ashes almost a metre tall (imagine the amount of paper that went into it!) which no longer burned but was still smoking, upon a grassy area beside a food centre. Whos gonna clear up all these ashes... they leave burn marks on the pavements and especially the grass which could stay until the next year when they do it again. The government should label this as vandalism. And so is the burning of their red candles which leave trails of red wax everywhere...
The worst part of it is the massive air pollution that results. smoke fills the air and a few hunded metres away i can smell the horrid burning incense and hell notes (which have a different smell from usual paper...) as if there wasnt enough global warming, or haze from indonesia.

Whats the point of burning so much hell notes? they are merely pieces of paper with pictures and words on them, hoping that they would somehow go into the nether world they believe in and become what it depicts there... as 'real' stuff. i may not know the tradition well or if theres really anything more to it, but im thinking, why does someone who is dead need so many houses, cars, handphones, money etc? they could just burn one per person and thats enough. hell is meant to be a place of suffering. and secondly, how would they determine who those notes go to? it just burns and goes to the underworld, for anyone to take? i would like to know their story.


I have also seen many food offerings. I have commonly seen small plates with joss sticks along the path side; i almost kicked over a plate of oranges and cakes beside the road while not looking. And there are bigger scale displays - at my school's fast food area today, i saw a KFC auntie laying out a whole tray of KFC food (burger, 2 packets of fries, 2 pc chicken, drinks, mash potato) and stuck joss sticks around them! And even bigger so, yesterday along the road in some open space, i chanced upon a long table with at least 10 seaters, all laid out with plates with food in it, like a big feast in a banquet! each seater had a packet drink with straw poked in for them... at the end of the table was an altar.
Isnt it exceedingly extravagant, or at least wasteful... Do they really think the ghosts that have no physical bodies would be hungry and can actually eat in the first place? They just leave all the good food (which could have well fed many people instead) out there to rot, and when the ants, rats and cockraoches have eaten them up, they feel satisfied that the 'ghosts' have had their meal... It is an eyesore, a sickening waste of food, turns into a rotting mess and which only invites pests.

So, at the whole point of it is that they feel the spirits are out in the open now to cause trouble for people. but i would say in actual fact, the spirits are out only because the people invited them. that is the case for most cases of spiritual activity... so they brought the trouble upon themselves, and they try to solve it as such. Does supernatural activity really increase during this period? i dont think so, its all in the mind, and all up to people's receptiveness to them.
Therfore set your mind on things above, not things from below.
there is no benefit entertaining even the thoughts about these unwanted entities, whatever there might be.

I am thankful that i dont need to be guilty of air pollution, wasting food, cowering in fear for a month, and missing out on all kinds of celebrations during the period. I remember 2 years ago, my birthday fell on the first day of the 7th month thing. i pity all those born in late august and participate in HGF.
Most of all, I am thankful that i know the God omnipotent who is master over all and in whom i can blot out all superstition and fear.