The Chinese living with ghosts!
There are many ghosts in Chinese culture; they have been worshipped by the Chinese for a few thousand years. Even Confucius said, "Respect ghosts and gods, but keep away from them." While many people believe in ghosts, there are others who don't. The Chinese people often say, "If you believe it, there will be, but if you don't, there will not."
The ghost is a classical image in Chinese culture, i.e., the young woman whose face is covered by long black hair, who dies due to misfortune, then comes back for revenge.
The word "ghost" for many Chinese conjures up similar images. Often the ghost is a beautiful young woman. The sudden switch from a beautiful girl to a frightening ghost is striking. The seemingly fragile, helpless and beautiful women turning into fearless killers is a favorite theme among Asian movie directors and storywriters.
Chinese Ghost Festival Just as the West features Halloween for ghosts and ghouls, the Chinese have a holiday to honor the departed spirits of the underworld -- the Chinese Ghost Festival. It is said that ghosts roam the world every year for one lunar month. In some areas of China, visitors can see small roadside fires, where believers burn paper money and other offerings to appease the restless spirits that have temporarily been released from Hades. The Chinese Ghost Festival is also called "Half July" (Lunar). It is a popular occasion celebrated throughout China on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. Historically, families offer sacrifices of the newly harvested grain to departed ancestors on this day, which also coincides with the Buddhist Ullambana (Deliverance) Festival and the Taoist Chinese Ghost Festival.
Since each of these traditions in some way honors the spirits of the departed, the seventh lunar month has come to be known as "Ghost Month" and is a time when the "Good Brethren" (ghosts from the underworld) come back to earth to feast on the victuals offered by the living. Over time the Ullambana Festival and Ghost Festival have melded together to become the present-day Chung Yuan Putu or "Mid-origin Passage to Universal Salvation."
The Chinese believe that the dead become ghosts between heaven and earth. Spirits without descendants to care for them are summoned during the Ghost Festival so that they may also enjoy the warmth of life among the living.
This custom -- an extension of the traditional Chinese ethic of "universal love" -- has been woven together with the didactic legend, "Moginlin Saving His Mother From Hades." It lends the Ghost Festival a positive spin as a time for remembering the importance of filial piety. People now have inherited releasing river light as an important activity. It is said that river light can comfort and warm homeless ghosts.
This is just an example of one of many types of cultures where their society has held firm in their traditions and beliefs of such things!
In ancient Japanese culture ghosts are seen as suicide victims who come back to reek havoc on the living. Japanese culture produced story of a ghostly woman who told men to torture and kill a man she blamed for her murder. Another traditional story suggest that a warlord was haunted by many people he killed. The Japanese believed that ghosts are everywhere and easy to conjure.
Mexican culture
There is extensive and varied belief in ghosts in Mexican culture. The modern state of Mexico before the Spanish conquest was inhabited by diverse peoples such as the Maya and Aztec, and their beliefs have survived and evolved, combined with the beliefs of the Spanish colonists.
The Day of the Dead incorporates pre-Columbian beliefs with Christian elements. Mexican literature and movies include many stories of ghosts interacting with the living.
After death the soul of the Aztec went to one of three places: Tlalocan, Mictlan, and the sun.
The Aztec idea of the afterlife for fallen warriors and women who died in childbirth was that their souls would be transformed into hummingbirds that would follow the sun on its journey through the sky. Those who drowned would go to Tlalocan, the first level of the upper worlds.
Souls of people who died from less glorious causes would go to Mictlan, the lowest level of the underworld, taking four years and passing through many obstacles to reach this place.
The Cihuateteo, spirits of human women who died in childbirth, were not benevolent. On five specified days of the Aztec calendar they descended to earth and haunted crossroads, hoping to steal children whom they had not been able to have themselves.
The Cantares Mexicanos is an important collection of lyric poetry transcribed from Náhuatl into Roman letters around 1550 CE, about 30 years after the fall of Tenochtitlan.
In his 1985 edition of these poems, John Bierhorst interprets the poems as "ghost songs" that were intended to summon the spirits of dead Aztec warriors back to earth to help their descendants under Spanish rule.
If the songs were successful the ghosts would descend from heaven fully armed and ready to fight, demanding payment in human sacrifice.[ This interpretation is, however, controversial.
Maya beliefs
The traditional Maya live in the continual presence of the "(grand)fathers and (grand)mothers", the usually anonymous, bilateral ancestors, who, in the highlands, are often conceived of as inhabiting specific mountains, where they expect the offerings of their descendants. In the past, too, the ancestors had an important role to play, with the difference that, among the nobility, genealogical memory and patrilineal descent were much more emphasized. Thus, the Popol Vuh lists three genealogies of upper lords descended from three ancestors and their wives. These first male ancestors - ritually defined as "blood letters and sacrificers" - had received their private deities in a legendary land of origins called "The Seven Caves and Seven Canyons" (Nahua Chicomoztoc), and on their disappearance, left a sacred bundle. In Chiapas, at the time of the Spanish conquest, lineage ancestors were believed to have emerged from the roots of a ceiba tree. Comparable beliefs still exist amongst the Tz'utujiles.
Looking at how the Chinese honor the thought of their dead is strikingly familiar sounding to the customs of the Spanish in South America! These type of events date back thousands of years! Way before either society had met to examine each others cultures and ways of life! When reading below about how they celebrate the "Day of the dead" in South America keep in mind how the Chinese had done their honoring as well!
--Day of the dead--
Main article: Day of the Dead
The Day of the Dead (Spanish: El Día de los Muertos), is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and by Latin Americans living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration occurs on November 2 in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2).
Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.
Due to occurring shortly after Halloween, the Day of the Dead is sometimes thought to be a similar holiday, although the two actually have little in common. The Day of the Dead is a time of celebration, where partying is common.
The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to the indigenous cultures. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors have been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2500–3000 years.
The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. The festivities were dedicated to the god.[8] known as the "Lady of the Dead," corresponding to the modern Catrina.
People go to cemeteries to communicate with the souls of the departed who are paying a holiday visit home. The descendants build private altars, containing the favorite foods and beverages, as well as photos and memorabilia, of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so that the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them.
In most regions of Mexico, November 1 honors children and infants, whereas deceased adults are honored on November 2. This is indicated by generally referring to November 1 mainly as "Día de los Inocentes" (Day of the Innocents) but also as "Día de los Angelitos" (Day of the Little Angels) and November 2 as "Día de los Muertos" or "Día de los Difuntos" (Day of the Dead).
So there was a few examples of cultures and ghost! As we stated a few paragraphs ago about the similarity of how they honor their dead doesn't it seem strange that societies separated by thousands of miles of oceans have a similar belief and system of doing things?
So we will share a few more cultures in the next blog and then we will look at the darker side of how these cultures have looked at the ghost factor! and the things that have been tried, and done, and believed! With communicating with these cultures dead ancestors!
We wanted to add a few of the Spanish version ghost stories as well!
Modern ghost legends
La Llorona
"La Llorona" is Spanish for "The Crying Woman" and is a popular legend in Spanish-speaking cultures in the colonies of the Americas, with many versions extant.
The basic story is that La Llorona was a beautiful woman who killed her children to be with the man that she loved and was subsequently rejected by him.
He might have been the children's father who had left their mother for another woman, or he might have been a man she loved but who was uninterested in a relationship with a woman with children, and whom she thought she could win if the children were out of the way.
She drowned the children and then, after being rejected anyway, killed herself. She is doomed to wander, vainly searching for her children for all eternity. Her constant weeping is the reason for her name. In some cases, according to the tale, she will kidnap wandering children or children who misbehave.
The basic story is that La Llorona was a beautiful woman who killed her children to be with the man that she loved and was subsequently rejected by him.
He might have been the children's father who had left their mother for another woman, or he might have been a man she loved but who was uninterested in a relationship with a woman with children, and whom she thought she could win if the children were out of the way.
She drowned the children and then, after being rejected anyway, killed herself. She is doomed to wander, vainly searching for her children for all eternity. Her constant weeping is the reason for her name. In some cases, according to the tale, she will kidnap wandering children or children who misbehave.
La Planchada
"La Planchada" is Spanish for "the ironed lady". Contrary to what people may assume because of the legend's title, La Planchada was not a woman who was crushed, rather it is similar to La Llorona. However, legend says it was a nurse who was attracted to a doctor and he rejected her, or a disgruntled nurse, or a nurse who killed her patient.Many variations of how she was created exist, but one consistent theme is that her ghost appears in many hospitals, though mainly in the metropolitan areas, especially in Mexico City.
Many hospitals such as Hospital Juárez claim she appears there in her old 1930s/60s nurse uniform, which is perfectly ironed (hence the name "La Planchada") and heals patients in the emergency sections. Just as there are claims about how she was turned into a ghost, there are many others in which eyewitnesses claim she appears.
Some say she emits a sort of glow. Others say she looks like a normal nurse. Others say she floats, while others say she walks normally, but her steps are never heard.
This happens at night and the next morning patients feel better and are taken to another room for further recovery.
When asked why they feel better, patients say that "a nurse came in and healed me", but no one in the hospital was either guarding the room or no nurse came at the time the incident happened.
Vanishing hitchhiker
In the Mexican version of the Vanishing hitchhiker urban legend, the hitchhiker is a beautiful woman, who chats with a stranger in a taxi.When she leaves as a normal person she leaves her address.
When the person tries to reach the woman at her home, he is informed the woman is dead and that it is also the anniversary of her death.
Cemetery hauntings
Often there are ghost legends associated with the older cemeteries. For example, the Panteón de Belén (also Santa Paula Cemetery), a historical cemetery located in Guadalajara, Mexico is the site of legends and night tours. The cemetery was opened in 1848 and it was formally closed in 1896. Legends that are part of the local folklore include the Vampire, The Pirate, The Lovers, The Monk, The Child afraid of the Dark, The Story of José Cuervo, The Nun and many more.It's almost as the dead aren't dead but rather just in a different place where we can still communicate and so fourth. Which is the actual belief! but does that mean their classified as ghost? Or passed on spirits? Or are they the same as they always were but just somewhere else? We'll let you know in the next blogs so stay tuned!
