如何跟歪果仁聊中国的"鬼节"

20160818ou 一中两外锵锵三人行 今日话题： 如何跟歪果仁聊中国的"鬼节" -- "中元节" 昨晚歪果同事走在大街上觉得好奇：怎么到处都有人在烧东西捏。。。。 Lincoln: There was an interesting sight all over Beijing yesterday. Chinese people burning, what seemed to be, just regular paper, maybe you can enlighten us as to what that reason might be. Yoyo: Yesterday was China’s ghost festival, so let’s put it in a very simple way so that listeners can understand it. It is much like Halloween in Western culture. It is when we believe that the gate of hell are thrown open, releasing hungry ghosts to wander the earth in search of food or seeking revenge on those who wronged them in life. Nick: That doesn’t sound much like my understanding of Halloween [it’s somewhat similar] that sounds pretty scary. Yoyo: This day people would also burn things such as paper houses or paper cars, paper servants, paper television or paper money in order to please the ghosts. Lincoln: These papers that we are burning, what are these papers exactly. Yoyo: These papers are fake paper money. Lincoln: So not real paper money, so these ghosts can presumably be easily fooled by counterfeits. They don’t have any ability to be able to detect that it is not real. Yoyo: Because maybe the real money is not enough for them. They have billions, trillions with lots of zeroes on it, [LW: There seems to be a lot of inflation in the afterlife! Goodness me] Lincoln: They really should get that economy under control in the afterlife. Yoyo: Families will be tribute to the other homeless wondering ghosts so that they will not intrude on their lives. Firstly people will draw a circle on the ground, and you need to leave a gate around the front. And then you need to burn like two pieces of hell money and that’s the money for the unknown wandering ghosts, for in case they intrude on other people in the circle [LW: Fascinating]. And then you will burn the money in the circle; that is for your ancestors. When you are burning the money or the other paper servants you are talking to them, if you are burning to grandma and grandpa I would say, ‘ grandma and grandpa, all the best to you, best wishes’, because winter is coming. And I would burn the money so that you have money to buy clothes in the afterlife. Lincoln: That’s lovely, it s a really interesting idea. Is there a specific month that you do that? Yoyo: In China, the seventh month the Chinese lunar calendar is called the ghost month. Yesterday on the Chinese lunar calendar is July 14. ON this special day (with regards to the ying and yang) the yin atmosphere, the gloominess, is the highest, so this is why people choose this day as the ghost festival. Lincoln: As a foreigner in China sometimes, even if you get embedded in the culture, there is always going to things you just don’t know.