{"id":2973,"date":"2016-10-18T20:46:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T03:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/?p=2973"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:37:12","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T15:37:12","slug":"night-of-the-hungry-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/night-of-the-hungry-ghosts\/","title":{"rendered":"No trick-or-treat –it’s the night of the hungry ghosts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Woman<\/a>October 19, 2016: Here in the U.S. we’re in full Halloween mode with last year’s zombie get-ups and this year’s creepy clown scare. In the American Southwest, Dia de Muertos<\/em> pays homage to departed ancestors with gaily decorated skulls and charming skeleton mariache bands. <\/em>But in my opinion no culture beats the Chinese when it comes to nasty ghouls. The sheer number and diversity is amazing.<\/p>\n

Researching my novel Water Ghosts<\/em> introduced me to the pantheon of malicious demons, devils and minor deities of the collective Chinese imagination. Among them are shui gui<\/em> — ghosts of the drowned.\u00a0 According to legend these unfortunates can only escape their watery hell if they find a living person to take their place. For seafaring and maritime people, water ghosts can be particularly troublesome; they’re known for their ability to deceive.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival<\/strong> is held on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month; it’s purpose is to appease the spirits of the departed who have been neglected by the living. During this festival the gates of hell are opened<\/strong> for the ravenous spirits to wander the earth in search of comfort — or revenge. On the evening before the festival people light water lanterns and set them afloat to invite the souls of drowned victims<\/strong> to the next day’s feast! The next day people offer food to the neglected dead and burn joss<\/em>, or ghost money —\u00a0 a traditional form of ancestor worship that goes back thousands of years. I was astonished to discover a variety of joss<\/em> sold in Asian markets in Hawaii and California.\u00a0 In Water<\/em> Ghosts<\/em> James burns Monopoly game money as a substitute for ghost money, to appease the dead.<\/p>\n

Bob and I recently watched \u00a0Seventh Moon <\/a>(2008), a horror movie directed by Eduardo Sanchez, about two Americans on their honeymoon in China during the Hungry Ghost Festival. Does it compare to Water Ghosts<\/em>? Some of the supernatural elements are similar, but Water Ghosts<\/em> takes place in the Pacific Ocean and the main ghost Yu, is a developed and complex character with his own story to tell. Maybe he deserves his own book?<\/p>\n

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October 19, 2016: Here in the U.S. we’re in full […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,94,342,208],"tags":[293,344,449,448,292],"class_list":["post-2973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-history","category-water-ghosts","category-what-inspires-me","tag-chinese-history","tag-chinese-mythology","tag-hungry-ghost-festival-chinese-history","tag-supernatural","tag-water-ghosts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2973"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2989,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973\/revisions\/2989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}