Many cultures believe that honoring ancestors brings blessings as the dead return to the earthly realm during this time and accepts offerings.
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Offerings to Ancestors
On these occasions, people offer food or symbols to guide and appease the spirits of their deceased ancestors.
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Common Time Frame
Traditionally, from late summer to early winter, the boundary between living and dead is believed to be the thinnest, allowing the dead to easily visit.
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Time frames:
August to early September:
Hungry Ghost Festival (China)
Trung Nguyen (Vietnam)
Obon (Japan).
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Time frames:
Late September to November:
Día de los Muertos (Mexico),
Chuseok (Korea)
Halloween (USA)
Pchum Ben (Cambodia),
Pitr Paksha (India)
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Pitr Paksha (India)
Pitr Paksha is a 16-day period of honoring ancestors through rituals and offering food and water to ancestors, priests and poor.
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Hungry Ghost Festival (China)
Water Lanterns are lit, and joss paper is burned to honor and guide wandering ghosts.
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Halloween (USA)
Halloween, started as Samhain, a Celtic festival that was about remembering the dead, now it focuses on social bonding.
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Día de los Muertos (Mexico)
Families create ofrendas (Altars), filled with food, Marigolds, and photos to honor and welcome loved ones back to the living world.
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Obon (Japan) )
A Buddhist festival honors ancestors' spirits by visiting graves, offering food, and lighting lanterns to guide them back to the otherworld.
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Chuseok (Korea)
Families pay respects to their ancestors by preparing feasts and visiting ancestral graves to offer food and drink.
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Despite differences, respecting the dead hints at having same cultural roots of honoring ancestors, recognizing-continuity of life that transcends modernity.