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Fun facts about the Ghost Month Pudu Rites in Taiwan

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Fun facts about the Ghost Month Pudu Rites in Taiwan

Fun facts about Ghost Month Pudu Rites in Taiwan

If you are a first-timer in Taiwan, starting from August 3, when you are walking on the street, you might encounter long or small tables set up in front of residential complexes, office buildings, or inside a tent on a street with a variety of offerings on the tables, from cookies, cakes, roasted chicken, fish, pork, to beverages. And you would see a bunch of people, dressed either casual or formal, standing next to the offerings, holding incense sticks, and looking into the sky, or the street, with prayers for blessings. Expect this scene if you travel to Taiwan between late July and early September each year. It is known as the Pudu Rite and is traditionally held between noon and evening; the date of performing the rite can be any day of the Ghost Month. At some Taoist temples, you might feel not comfortable with seeing a whole pig carcass on their offering tables, though such a scene has been seen less and less over the past few years in response to a growing awareness of animal welfare issues. This year, August 3 in the Gregorian calendar happens to be the first day of the seventh month of the lunar year, best known as the “Ghost Month,” literally meaning that all the spirits are allowed to leave the underworld in this very month and go back to the land of the living. The ghost month this year will end on the last day of the Gregorian calendar month of August. In a culturally diverse island country like Taiwan, you would expect to see offerings vary by geography. In crowded Northern Taiwan, rite performers prefer shopping cooked chicken leg and cookie combo as offerings; in Central Taiwan, canned products and grains are preferred; in Southern Taiwan, a whole raw chicken, fish and beverage products are the top choices, according to a report released by Carrefour earlier. Staffs of a company are holding incense sticks next to piles of packaged cookies in front of an office building. (Photo courtesy of CNA) Pokemon on the offering tables This year, some local temples in Changhua and Tainan Counties reportedly jumped on the Pokemon Go bandwagon by presenting offerings that resemble popular Pokemon characters and the Poke Ball, hoping to have those wandering spirits tap into the Pokemon Go craze and be entertained. (For photos, please click ETodayApple Daily) According to Taiwanese tradition, on the day of performing the Pudu Rite, apart from presenting offerings to all the wandering spirits, people also burn paper money, paper houses, paper clothes, paper iPhones mainly intended for the use of the spirits of the rite performer’s ancestors, outside their homes or businesses, along the sides of roads, or in the fields. The act of burning paper money or paper models, however, has been said to exacerbate air pollution with large amounts of carbon dioxide being released at the same point of time. The trend of “burning for offering” has gone downhill with growing public awareness of environmental issues such as global warming. According to the United Daily News, a Taoist Temple in Kaohsiung set up more than 2,000 tables on Tuesday with offerings worth more than NT$3 million (US$93,000) to perform the Pudu Rite. The settings and arrangements were said to be very “thoughtful” to serve spirits of the disabled with low-leg tables, the kids with toys and candies, and the animals with pet foods, hoping to have them enjoy a good feast of the year at the time being allowed to “leave the underworld” and to receive blessings in return. At the end of the rite, a large amount of offerings is set to be distributed among low-income families in Kaohsiung as good causes, helping those in need both from the underworld and the real world. Led by Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan, Taiwanese lawmakers are performing Pudu Rite in front of the Legislative Yuan (Photo courtesy of CNA)