Five of Pentacles. Art by Cleo Lim, from The Southeast Asian Myths & Stories Tarot.
Festival of the Hungry ghosts
Zhong Yuan Jie (中元节); hungry ghost festival, falls on the middle of the seventh month of the Lunar calendar. In Singapore, the first; seventh; fifteenth and last day of the month are significant.
According to history the festival have been celebrated as early as 1873 and another native Malay name for the festival is Sumbayang Hantu (praying to the Ghosts).
The Origins of the hungry ghost festival is mainly a Chinese festival which have both buddhist and Taoists religions basis.
The Focus of the Taoist is that one this month wandering souls should be appeased. Whereas in the Buddhist teaching; it is on filial piety.
In the Taoist beliefs; there are three main deities, the Tian Guan Da Di, heavenly king, who accords merits, the Di Guan Da DI, Earthly king, who accords sins and crimes; and the Shui Guan Da Di, the king of the water realms, who helps mortals avoids dangers.
On the 15th day of the 1st lunar month is the birthday of the Tian Guan Da DI
On 15th day of the tenth lunar month is the birthday of the Shui Guan Da Di
On 15th day of the Seventh lunar month is the birth day of Di Guan Da Di
On Zhong Yuan Jie, the Di Guan Da Di will be on earth to record the sins and bad deed of men.
It is similarly during this month that the gates of hell are open and the realms of the hungry ghosts are close to the realms of the human. Hence on the first day, devotees will burn offerings to the ghosts and to avoid trouble rom them.
Buddhists, on the other hand, have traditionally celebrated the Hungry Ghost Festival as the Yu Lan Pen (盂兰盆) Festival. Yu Lan Pen is a transliteration of the Sanskrit name for the Buddhist Ullambana Festival. Yu lan means to “hang upside down” in Chinese, while pen in this context refers to a container filled with food offerings.7 Yu lan pen thus refers to a container filled with offerings to save one’s ancestors from being suspended in suffering in purgatory.8 The festival, which originated from the story of Mu Lian, commemorates his filial piety towards his mother.9 The legend is also believed to be the origin of the Chinese custom of making offerings and praying for one’s ancestors during this annual festival.
The Five of pentacles is a time of need and a time for reflection on what are needs and what are desires.
The Art portrayal is an abstract art which shows the paper offerings which are burnt during the Chinese hungry ghost festivals.
The orange flames and the smoke, beyond the human eyes, various shapes and sizes of ghosts come to feast. Yearly due to their desire for an end to the suffering of being ghost and also for the attempt to transcend their current existence to a higher plane of existence.
Similar the worries of material wealth and comfort confront us daily.
It makes us think of the current state and unable to focus on what is our purpose and truths of what we can achieve later in life.
Should we be hungry ghosts roaming the world only seeking for material comfort?
Or rather should we worry on other matters in life?
Editor’s note:
We should never lose sight of our true goals in life. Many trials and challenges will face us.
Like worries of money, worries of health, worries of food. We should not drown in worries and forget that salvation is in sight.
