Hungry Ghosts Go Where?

This time of the year is terrible for me. First the haze then at times the Sumatran squall. Now it is the Hungry Ghost Festival with burning and all. Haze, smoke, weather change is killing me through my ultra-sensitive nose. Fortunately, Indonesians do not practise burning during the 7th month or we will become the walking dead. If I got hit by a bad bout of allergic rhinitis and you saw me on the street, you might think I just walked out from the gate of hell. Then you see me holding a glass of beer and you know I am human. 

Those who drink too much are called 酒 鬼 (jiu gui). They say you should not go swimming around this time because the 水 鬼 will drag your leg and pull you down to drown you. Then those who were DOM (dirty old men) may have become "hum sup kwai". Then you have the hungry ghosts or yao gui - words used to describe greedy people. You see some Chinese people like to have a lot of Gods as we have many types of ghosts. I wonder if Chinese ghosts will go disturb the "kwai lo" Westerners. 

I do remember that when I was young, they used to say that during the Lunar calendar's 7th month, the hell gate is opened and all kinds of ghosts will wander the streets at night. Some folks I know who claimed to have the third eye told me that during this time of the year, when they are out at night, they are not sure if what they saw were people or ghosts. Others said they could differentiate when what they saw have legs that do not touch the ground. 

They also said that if you are out at night, when you hear someone calling you from behind, do not answer and do not look back. Just walk away as fast as you can. It could be your boss! Haha. Gotcha! No, I mean it could be a "you-know-what". Once, I heard someone calling me at night from behind, I didn't turned back nor answered. I walked away quickly. I heard the footsteps behind catching up so I picked up speed and when I turned a corner, I ran. Next day, I got a call from Freddy. Freddy, a friend not the Krueger one from Night Mare On Elm Street. "Eh, last night I saw you and called you. You just ignored me and walked away quickly. I just wanted to say thanks for the soccer tips over the weekend". Just kidding but you get the drift. So Hungry Ghosts Go Where?

For those who may have missed, allow me to share with you my previous postings on such encounters. If you read through them, you will know what my thoughts are for such things? Are there such things? Are they for real? What are they? Should we be afraid?


Fear not. If you have fears, talk to me and I shall banish your fears forever. It can be anything, fear of ghosts, fear of cockroaches, fear of having no money, fear of losing, fear of anything. I provide very fast service no matter how long it takes. 

 Like that hungry ghosts go where?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Choo

Image
Preface It has really been awhile since I have last written and published an article on my blog with the last being in October last year. Before that I have been writing and publishing non-stop for 15 years since 2008.  I was not suffering from writer's block. They say running water never grows stale. So I have to move on to other things since the pandemic has ravaged and torn all asunder. No matter how passionate you are about anything, you will find that after an absence for sometime, the engine gets cold and you find it harder to start.  Just too darned busy and being too busy with one thing means one becomes lazy with the others. The law of compensation. A hiatus if you must.  Covid made it worse as there was no more travelling since borders were closed and eating locally and overseas were curtailed. So I could not write about these things. In fact, I laid out my travel luggage, sat down and spoke to them - "We are not gonna travel for a few years". They have since be
Read more

The Kallang Roar! (Part Three)

Image
Back in the good old days, we have four other national teams. Besides the National Team (The Lions), we also have a B team (The Cubs). Then we also competed in the Sultan's Gold Cup fielding a team called Singapore Malays. We have the Singapore Indians playing in the Bardhan Cup and the other being the Singapore Chinese team also competing aga inst Malaysian state teams in the same format and also the Ho Ho Cup triangular among Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In 1976, Englishman Trevor Hartley became responsible for the Singapore team at age 28. I can't remember which year Singapore beat Malacca 6-2 and Lee Bee Seng was sent off for punching an opponent who must have trampled on him. Here is Bee Seng with Brian Rozario. In the same match Quah Kim Song was sent off too for fighting. And I said wow! Malaysia Cup is like that? I like! (Pix - Lee Bee Seng with Brian Rozario). And can you believe this? Before all these we have Mike Walker who played Kim Song a
Read more

The Hainanese

The Hainanese are people from Hainan who originated from Hainan Island - the smallest province of China at the Southern most tip. They were originally fishermen from Fujian and Guandong and later settled over there. The Hainanese, part of the Chinese dispora migrated to different South East Asian countries including late comers to Singapore worked in ships as sailors, opened their own coffee shops or restaurants, bakeries or bars and worked as cooks and chefs and others at local hotels.  Hainanese in Singapore made up 7% of the Chinese population. The Hainanese came to Singapore much later than the Hokkiens and Teochews who are already well entrenched in trade and commerce. Originally they also have problems communicating with other dialect groups as their language seems unintelligible to the others but they began to carve out a name for themselves working for wealthy Europeans including as canteen operators for military bases.  Hainanese are especially with food and beverage.
Read more