Ghost Month

The seventh month of the lunar calender is ghost month, a time when the ghosts come up out of the ground and haunt the island of Taiwan for a month. There are many superstitions associated with the month, for example you are not supposed to swim or the ghosts will drown you. I have heard that this is an old tradition designed for protection because the ocean currents are especially strong in the summer. I tried my luck and went swimming this month and somehow survived. One of my co-teachers suggested that maybe I am too tall for the ghosts to drown.

On the 14th day of the month people give offerings to the ghosts and burn paper money outside their homes and businesses. I did not know about this tradition so I was confused when I walked down the street and saw table after table of food and drinks with incense sticks. Even McDonalds had an alter outside, which was a funny contrast between old tradition and the modern world. The tables also had a strange mix of foods. Some had very traditional snacks and some had bags of lays potato chips with a stick on incense coming out of it.

The alter outside the Gloria school

Paper money being burned outside Gloria