Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

It’s All Your Fault, Mahāmaudgalyāyana

photo by kimata

In my mind swirled a vision of white wedding dresses and me lounging comfortably on a baroque chair watching my gf emerge from behind the curtains looking like an angel from heaven.

Unfortunately that was not to be. All the old folk in our family (parents, grandparents etc) were aghast upon discovering our plans to go to the bridal studio to choose the perfect wedding dress (well actually 7 of them) because the Hungry Ghost Festival was still not over.

If you choose your wedding gowns during the Hungry Ghost Festival, great calamity will befall your marriage!!!
- my maternal grandmother, aged 70

Wait later your marriage got problems if you do this!!!
- my mother, aged 54

No way!
- her mother, aged 55

This really sucks! Foiled by some insane folklore that makes absolutely no sense. Did you know that you’re not supposed to go swimming during the Hungry Ghost Festival or you’ll drown? I have been swimming every other day with reckless abandon - so exciting right!!!

Btw, did you also know that the Chinese call the afterlife “Hell” because early Christian missionaries claimed that non-converted Chinese folk were all “going to Hell” when they died. The Chinese, thinking “Hell” was the proper English term for the afterlife, adopted the word.

I didn’t know that you’re getting married this soon! Just wanna give my best wishes to you two. Congrats! :)

when you put “her mother” i was thinking, “huh, cowboy’s mother’s mother is 55?!?!?!” until i thought, “OHHHHHH, your girl’s mother!” aiyah so stupid.

btw yes i am still making bookmarks but only after Os. will contact you!

Good post - I really enjoyed the wikipedia link. It kinda sucks that I’ve been in Singapore ovre 13 years, and still don’t know as much about its culture as I would like to.

I wrote up something on my blog about the origins of the Lion Dance (a few months ago). This topic seems to be a nice follow up to that.

Ps: when does the 7th month end?

In colloquail* Cantonese, death is also referred to as “gone to Holland” and “gone to sell salted duck’s eggs”

Cannot find any Wikipedia entries for those.

* sure spell wrong one, but i dont care

7th month ends on 3rd of sept.. count 15 days after it will be mid-autumn! :)

i went batam last week, swam and took ferry. nothing happen leh.. so exciting~

I think the taboo about going swimming applied only to swimming in the ocean, because some evil sea-ghost would come tempt you away and make you drown. I think their influence not so strong as to extend to swimming pools lah :)

Well, thou shan’t see your future wife in her wedding dress anyways, at any time. All you should know about it is what shade of white it is (like “white white” or cream or champagne etc) so you can match the shirt of your outfit. everything else results in divorce within 10 days after your wedding ceremony!

PS: why are all my posts always “awaiting moderation” in just about any blog? I’m not a spammer dammit!

Eh, just look at Ghost Month as a break lar. You’ll get pestered by the wife-to-be soon enough, why tempt fate?

Thanks for the birthday wishes btw.

I’ve heard some horror stories about people who got married or conceived during the hungry ghosts month - don’t dooo eeet! But picking a dress should be ok I thought? Mmm.

Please dun mix up Mahāmaudgalyāyana with the popular beliefs of the hungry ghosts’ festival. The real Buddhist account of the meaning his link with hungry ghosts is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullambana_Sutra .Please see too about Ghosts ans Unseen Beings according to Buddhism at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zeph/message/597

aiyah swimming makes you more susceptible to ‘getting possessed’, since spiritual beings are made of pure energy, and water is a great conductor of electricity, heck what on earth am i mumbling about… yeah so i think that’s about it for the myth…

although the girl who lived opposite had to bathe in holy water every day during the seventh month… sprinkle a drop of ‘normal’ water on her and she would immediately speak in a different voice etc… OOOOOOOOO…

yup.. this chinese ghost festival thingy is totally not a buddhist thing.

Its a product of the chinese culture(more than 1000 yrs of influence from buddhist n taoist religion). The pure buddhist festival is so much more pure n noble to me.

Well.. welcome to the 8th mth.. of mooncakes and lady on the moon. Again its not buddhist :)

Congrats on your wedding!