Hungry Ghost Festival in Singapore
(CHAKRA) August 24th, 2010 is a special day & week for both Buddhists (Hungry Ghost Festival) and Hindus (Raksha Bandhan).
The Hungry Ghost festival is celebrated in a few countries such as various parts of China. The Hungry Ghost Realm is one of the Six Realms of Samsara, into which beings are reborn. Hungry Ghost celebrations can be tracked back to the Ullambana Sutra where the Buddha’s disciple Mahamaudgalyayana learned that his mom had been reborn as a hungry ghost. He gave her a plate of food, but before she could eat it the food turned into burning coals. Mahamaudgalyayana went to the Buddha to learn what he could do for her and was told the sangha should fill clean basins with fruits and other food, along with other offerings. The Buddha instructed the assembled sangha to place the basins in front of an altar and recite mantras and prayers. Then 7 generations of ancestors will be released from the lower realms and they will receive the food in the basins and have blessing for a hundred years.
Raksha Bandhan is celebrated by Hindus all over the world but is most common with Hindus from North India. The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi (holy colored thread) by the sister on her brothers wrist. The brother then offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her as she presents mitai (sweets) to her brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed one another mitai. There are various tales on how Raksha Bandhan. The main story being from the epic Mahabharat that concerns Krishna and Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas where she had torn a strip of thread/fabric off her sari and tied it around Krishna’s finger to stop the flow of blood. Krishna was so touched by her action that He found himself bound to her by love. He promised to repay the debt and then spent the next 25 years showing devotion. Draupadi, in spite of being married to 5 great warriors and being a daughter of a powerful monarch, trusted and depended wholly on Krishna. There is also much evidence of Raksha Bandhan during the medieval era, around the 15th century, there were many wars between the Rajputs and Muslim invaders.
People stay indoors, streets and malls are deserted, business takes a backseat and celebrations put on perma-pause because millions of souls are baying for blood! The dead have come back to settle their accounts – ignore them at your peril!