As Sarah and I rode a taxi back to our apartment complex just after dark yesterday evening I noticed a person tending a small fire on the side of the road.  Interesting, I thought.  It is a bit cold outside.  I guess a fire would be nice to keep warm.

Then as the taxi continued down the busy kuai cu lu ("quick" road), I noticed another person hunched over a small blaze.  Then there was another huddled mass of two or three people putting paper into their own personal fires.  Before we had gone two city blocks I had already counted about 6 little fires each being stoked or started by individuals and small groups.   All the way home I watched the fire-starters at work as their burning embers ascended into the night sky.  It perked my curiosity.  What was going on here?

Was it Pyromaniac Appreciation Day or the start of the annual Document Destroying Festival?

To further add to the mystery, later in the evening while navigating around remnant piles of ash, emptied bottles of baijiu (hard liquor!) and downtrodden paper products, I noticed 100 kuai (RMB) lying on the sidewalk.  Or so I thought.  I was skeptical it was real money and stared at it for a few minutes before finally picking it up.  My doubts were confirmed upon further perusal; the bill was made to look like Chinese currency but it was obviously counterfeit and on the back of the bill was printed these ominous words: Hell Bank Note.

"What the…?" I thought.

It wasn’t until my language class this morning that my teacher unraveled the mystery for me.  Yesterday, the Han Chinese here in Xining were celebrating The Hungry Ghost Festival!

So what is this strange Ghost Festival of fire you might be asking?  Well, it turns out that the 7th month of the Chinese lunar calendar is Ghost Month.  And on the 14th day of this 7th month, the Leader or Boss of the underworld (The Church Lady says: Could it be…well, possibly…I don’t know?  Satan!) takes a break for the night which allows the ghosts and spirits living under his ward to return to earth.

Chinese folks, who hold to this superstitious festival, will burn "hell money" in order to ensure that their dead relatives have good things in the afterlife.  In many ways it’s another form of ancestor worship.  According to my teacher, these ghosts are also hungry and thirsty so many families will offer food and drink (thus the baijiu!) for their deceased but disembodied loved ones. 

Creepy, huh?  What’s even creepier is where the name Hell Money probably came from.  (You should check out the history of that if you are able to access the wikipedia website linked above…)

Anyway, I told my teacher (in Chinese) that families should probably also burn (i.e. on a fire, not in a hard drive) some good DVD’s so their relatives can also enjoy a movie with their annual meal.  I don’t think she thought that was very funny.  She is Tibetan and doesn’t follow this Ghost Festival custom, but she still doesn’t like the idea of free-wheeling spirits with the munchies roaming about.  My classmate explained to her that since we have His Spirit living inside us, we aren’t afraid of hungry Caspers.  (I wish I would have thought to have said that!  It was a good call…)

Anyway, after learning about yet another Chinese lunar festival, I am really looking forward to the familiarity of Thanksgiving– feeding the hungry ghost inside of me tomorrow.  He especially likes turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie….Mmmmmmm.  The hell money he can do without.  But it might work nicely for Monopoly.