If you’ve walked past your void deck and seen little piles of joss sticks stuck into the grass, or see performance stages for getai being erected and a row of empty chairs at the front, you know that Ghost Month (or Hungry Ghost) in action. It’s one of those things most of us grew up around without really knowing the why.
Quick FAQ before we go further: Ghost Month ≠ Qingming. Qingming is specifically about tomb-sweeping and honouring your own ancestors. Ghost Month is a whole different vibe because it’s about appeasing all spirits, including the ones nobody’s around to remember anymore. Qingming is pegged to the solar calendar and lands around early April every year and barely shifts. Ghost Month, on the other hand, runs on the lunar calendar: the 7th lunar month, wherever that happens to fall, which is usually around August.
So what even is Ghost Month?
Ghost Month refers to the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which in 2026 runs from 13 August to 10 September, with the 15th day (27 August) marking the peak, known as Zhongyuan Jie (中元节) or Ghost Day. During the month, it’s believed the gates of the underworld swing open, letting spirits — both ancestors and “wandering ghosts” with no living descendants to remember them — roam freely among the living for the month before the gates shut again.
While offerings happen throughout the month, the 15th day (middle of the Ghost Month) is when spiritual energy is believed to be at its strongest, and families and businesses go all out: fuller offerings, more elaborate prayers, and the busiest getai (outdoor stage performance) schedules of the month.
What actually happens throughout the month
- Joss paper and incense burning: You’ll see designated metal bins around HDB estates each evening where families burn joss paper, symbolic “hell money,” and paper effigies (of things like clothes or even cars) as offerings for the deceased.
- Food offerings on the street: Fruits, rice, and other food are laid out on pavements or void decks. Don’t step on them, and definitely don’t kick over the joss sticks.
- Getai performances: Live stage shows (sometimes Chinese opera, sometimes modern variety performances) are held in neighbourhoods, with the front row of seats deliberately left empty, reserved for the “VIP” spirit guests.
- Auctions of blessed items: Some getai events auction off symbolic items believed to bring luck, with proceeds going to charity or community funds.
- The taboos: The commonly cited ones include avoiding swimming, not moving house, skipping weddings or big purchases, not sitting in the getai front row, and not hanging laundry out overnight. How strictly people follow these is really a personal (or family) choice these days. There are more taboos you can check out here.
The origin story: two religions, one festival
Ghost Month’s roots are a mashup of Buddhist and Taoist belief systems that merged over centuries. On the Buddhist side, it traces back to the Ullambana Sutra, which tells of a monk who used offerings and prayer to help free his mother’s spirit from suffering in the afterlife (the basis for a festival of filial piety and merit-making). On the Taoist side, the seventh month is when Diyuan (地官), the Taoist deity who governs and pardons the dead, “opens the gates” to let spirits temporarily return to earth.
Over time these two traditions blended into what we now broadly call the Hungry Ghost Festival, practiced not just in China, but across Chinese communities in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia more broadly, with related observances like Vietnam’s Tết Trung Nguyên.
Why does Singapore still observe it?
Singapore’s Chinese community has deep roots going back to 19th and 20th century migration, and Ghost Month came along with that heritage. What makes the Singapore version distinctive is how it’s shaped by our specific urban landscape – namely, HDB estates. Since most of us live in high-rise public housing rather than standalone homes with ancestral altars, the rituals moved outdoors: void decks, car parks, and roadsides became the new spaces for offerings and burning.
It’s also worth noting you don’t need to be religious, or even Chinese, to “observe” it in the loose sense most Singaporeans do. Plenty of people who aren’t particularly devout will still avoid certain things out of respect or habit, the same way people might avoid whistling at night in this period. It’s become as much a cultural touchstone as a religious one.
The bottom line
Ghost Month isn’t really about being scared; it’s about remembrance, respect, and community, dressed up in centuries-old ritual that’s since adapted itself to Singapore’s very modern skyline. So next time you walk past a burning bin or a getai stage this month, you’ll know exactly what’s going on, and maybe give that empty front row a wide berth.
