On the climactic night of the Chinese Ghost Festival, 15 festooned floats carrying exquisitely decorated bamboo and paper "lantern houses" are paraded to the sound of drums and horns through the streets of Keelung, Taiwan's northernmost port, and then led slowly to the nearby Patoutze coast. There, at midnight, to the mingled murmur of the surf and the muttered incantations of Taoist priests, the 15 lantern houses from each of the area's major clans are spread out along the rocky shore. The master of ceremonies, a clan elder holding sticks of incense to represent the other families, prays to the spirits to accept the offerings; the crowd parts; and pairs of young men carry the houses into the water, set them alight, and push them out to sea. The spectators, raucous just moments before, are now solemn and hushed, watching the flaming offerings drift out across the pitch-black waters, eventually to flicker, flare, and disappear in the night. . . .
The lantern ceremony, which fell on the night of August 29th this year, is the high point of Keelung's Ghost Festival activities, which are held from the twelfth to the fifteenth days of the seventh lunar month. Keelung's festival has grown from a smallscale, token observance when it began 131 years ago to a major tourist attraction that drew some 200,000 local and visiting spectators from around the island this year and last. Only Hsinchu, with its Festival of the Righteous, and the Hakka communities, with their local sacrifices, still observe a similar ceremony to deliver souls from their suffering on the fifteenth day of Ghost Month.
Keelung's ceremony was originally a way to substitute friendly competition for bloody strife. During the colonization of Taiwan, immigrants from the two major Fukienese home districts of Changchou and Chuanchou feuded constantly, leading to a conflict near Keelung in August 1851 in which over 100 people lost their lives. Three years later, to eliminate this vicious bloodshed, community leaders decided that each of the local eleven clans should take turns during the Ghost Festival in conducting a ceremony to deliver the souls of those who had died from sickness, by drowning, or through factional strife. The order of succession was determined by lot. Since then, a group representing minority surnamed families was added in 1956, and three more families also formed associations, bringing the number of clan organizations to the current total of 15.
Each clan is responsible for planning and organizing festival activities for the year in which its turn comes up. Clan members pool together their knowledge and resources in the hope that their year will be the best ever. The center of activities is the chup'ut'an, or Deliverance Altar, located on a hill in Keelung's Chiang K'ai-shek Park. The altar is bedecked with hundreds of lanterns, festoons, and paper models of birds, flowers, and characters from folk legend. Seen from here, the decorated towers set off against the river, the twinkling lanterns, and the streams of visitors ascending the hill present a magnificent spectacle at night.
On the first day of the seventh lunar month, when Ghost Month begins, the new master of ceremonies leads the other clans to the Temple of the Righteous and opens a vermilion door to symbolize the opening of the gates of the underworld and the release of the solitary spirits below to the world of light.
On the fourteenth, lantern poles are set up to draw the ghosts to the offerings laid out for them to enjoy. Because it is feared that too many ghosts might show up, the poles are kept under 30 meters high and, on the night of the sacrifice, priests chant scriptures and sound gongs and drums to multiply the offerings from one to ten, ten to a hundred, and so forth.
On the same night, "bushel" lanterns from each of the 15 clans are paraded through the streets and placed in the Ch'ingankung Temple. The lanterns are filled with rice, in which a bronze mirror, an ancient blade, a small scale, a ruler, a pair of scissors, and a small paper umbrella are placed to ward off evil and protect the clan from harm. The oil lamps on top will burn another two weeks until the end of the month.
The highlight of the festival is the ceremony to release the lantern houses and "water" lanterns. While the purpose of the lantern poles is to attract wandering ghosts on land, the water lanterns are intended to release the ghosts of the drowned from their underwater prisons. Water lanterns come in many shapes. Those from north China usually look like lotuses, the throne of Buddha, while those from the south often take the form of little houses, of which the lantern houses of the 15 clans are an elaborate development. Releasing water lanterns was originally a flourishing activity on Taiwan, but because it was restricted during the Japanese occupation, now only villages in the Hsinchu, Hsinpu, and Taoyuan areas preserve the custom outside of Keelung.
Ghost Festival sacrifices have become increasingly simplified with the transition to an industrialized society. In the old days, every household used to sacrifice chickens and pigs and hold big feasts for guests. Now, they just lay out some fruit and flowers or even some hamburgers and soda pop. But Keelung still keeps up the old custom of hog contests and sets out a veritable mountain of meat before the chup'ut'an with chicken, duck, goose, fish, and, of course, pork chops from the winning pig.
At 11 o'clock on the evening of the fifteenth, a Taoist priest dressed as Chung K'uei, the Chinese ghostbuster, performs a 10-minute ceremony in front of the altar. With a curly beard, a black face, and flashing leopard's eyes, shouting incantations and waving a chicken, the priest scares the ghosts back down to Hades, ending the chup'ut'an activities for another year. Ghost Month itself ends on the 30th when the gates of the underworld are closed shut.
The cost of all this? This year the Chiangs paid out NT$4.8 million (about US$120,000), which their clan leader considers "rather economical" when compared with the Lins' NT$5.8 million of last year. The money is raised by voluntary contributions from members who are happy to increase the prestige of their clan. And who, after all, would be so stingy as to begrudge some lonely ghosts a few nights' entertainment once a year?
(Translated by Peter Eberly)
[Picture Caption]
This "ghost gate" is actually nothing more than a red-lacquer wood door with an ordinary iron lock.
A column of lantern houses, accompanied by fireworks and blessed by Taoist incantations, on their way to be set afire and afloat.
A "bushel" lantern with its mirror to ward off evil. The lotus-shaped bowl contains lamp oil which, when lit, will preserve the longevity and continuity of the clan.
Tasty treats set out for the delectation of the "good brothers" from the underworld.
Twinkling lanterns hung in order around the temple walls, each with the name of its donor.
The gaily decorated towers on Keelung's chup'ut'an draw crowds of tourists as well as the ghosts they are intended to attract.
Chung K'uei's ghost-chasing gyrations and getup are enough to half scare people, too.
Show's over. . . .
A column of lantern houses, accompanied by fireworks and blessed by Taoist incantations, on their way to be set afire and afloat.
A "bushel" lantern with its mirror to ward off evil. The lotus-shaped bowl contains lamp oil which, when lit, will preserve the longevity and continuity of the clan.
Tasty treats set out for the delectation of the "good brothers" from the underworld.
Twinkling lanterns hung in order around the temple walls, each with the name of its donor.
The gaily decorated towers on Keelung's chup'ut'an draw crowds of tourists as well as the ghosts they are intended to attract.
Chung K'uei's ghost-chasing gyrations and getup are enough to half scare people, too.
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