Yu Lan Shen Hui or Hungry Ghosts' Month

Today is the fifteenth day of Yu Lan Shen Hui dedicated to beings in the Ghosts' Realm. Every where you can see most of the Chinese buying cakes, fruits, 'buah rambai' (a type of fruit that comes in bunches) to be offered to the Hungry Ghosts when they pray.

According to Buddhism, there are six realms one has to go through if one has not attained nirvana. One of the realms is the hungry ghosts. It is believed that the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the month when hungry are released from the Ghosts' Realm. Hence their relatives who are still living will offer food for them, especially today although it lasts for a month.

It reminds the Buddhists that they should do good and practise Buddhism so that when they pass away they will be born as beings outside the samsara (Six Realms, which are human beings, dewas, azuras, animals, ghosts and hell) and stop the rebirth processes.