The Foolishness of Celebrating the Chinese Ghost Month
Well, it's the Chinese Ghost Month according to the 1st day of the seventh lunar month - with the 15th day of said lunar month to be the Chinese Ghost Festival. Here is what the Chinese Fortune Calendar website says about the said festival:
The Ghost Month is the seventh lunar month of Chinese Lunar Calendar. The 15th lunar day of the 7th lunar month is the Chinese Ghost Festival. The Chinese formal name of the Ghost Festival is Chung-Yuan . The first lunar day of 7th lunar month is on August 1, 2019. August 15, 2019 is the 15th lunar day, which is the Chinese Ghost Festival. The first lunar day of 8th lunar month is on August 30, 2030. Therefore, the Ghost Month is from August 1 to August 29 in the China time zone.
Many Chinese families have both Buddhism and Taoism religions. The spirits jailed in the Hell are called ghosts. The folklore says the ghosts have one-month parole and will travel to the towns in the 7th lunar month every year. People have better to feast them. People are afraid that ghosts play trick-or-treat game. That is why Chinese call the 7th lunar month as the Ghost Month.
This is utter foolishness and unbiblical stupidity. If you think about it - the Bible supports no such notion. What does the Bible say instead? Luke 16:19-31 gives us the grim reality of the afterlife. Do you remember when the rich man asked for a dip of water to cool his tongue? Believing that the dead in Hell will get a one-month parole (or better said for some, Purgatory) is not biblical. Did the rich man even get a one-month parole from Hell? He didn't even get it! He was there to suffer for all eternity with no rest day and night. I doubt it that that said rich man got his parole today and is allowed to wander until the end of the Chinese Ghost Month. All the souls in Hell will still be there waiting for the inevitable time they will be transferred to the Lake of Fire!
We also get the problem of praying for the dead for the whole lunar month. I remembered reading obituaries in newspapers. Some Chinese unbelievers (some of them even practice Chinese folk religions with Roman Catholicism) not only request and offer their prayers for the deceased in Roman Catholic parishes but also in Buddhist temples. What is worse is that the person has been dead for several years. If the person has been dead without Christ then the person has no chance of getting eternal repose. Worse, the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory belittles the grace of God by saying those who die in His grace must still burn off their sins. Although Roman Catholics do not teach that Purgatory is a second chance for the dead - the teaching still belittles the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross too. Buddhists like Hindus also believe in reincarnation where the dead will come back to life in another lifetime, as another person or even another gender.
If there are any "ghosts" of dead people here then we need to face the truth. These are demons pretending to be dead relatives or dead people. Any claim of having seen the "ghost" of one's dead relative is deceived by a demon. I would even dare believe that the Samuel who talked to Saul was just a demon in disguise. This festival is satanic and has no place in the Christian life. Chinese Christians have every right and duty to shun the stupidity called the Chinese Ghost Month and everything associated with it.