That's actually a pretty neat idea for a Japanese Halloween. Mixing it with Night Parade of Hundred Demons and everyone wearing Youkai disguises instead of the typical skeletons, witches and ghosts.
For Europeans who can't bother to read the Wikipedia article about the Night Parade, imagine a wild hunt composed entirely of Eastern-looking monsters. That's it, literally. Honestly, I still can't believe two myths from the opposite sides of the planet can be this similar. I might buy it if someone said things like this actually exist.
For Europeans who can't bother to read the Wikipedia article about the Night Parade, imagine a wild hunt composed entirely of Eastern-looking monsters. That's it, literally. Honestly, I still can't believe two myths from the opposite sides of the planet can be this similar. I might buy it if someone said things like this actually exist.
I think there are people studying similarities between folklore systems like that.
For Europeans who can't bother to read the Wikipedia article about the Night Parade, imagine a wild hunt composed entirely of Eastern-looking monsters. That's it, literally. Honestly, I still can't believe two myths from the opposite sides of the planet can be this similar. I might buy it if someone said things like this actually exist.
The similarity I like the most is probably this. :)
In Chinese culture, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Double Ninth Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, during Ghost Festival, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is veneration of the dead, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths. Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. Elaborate meals (often vegetarian meals) would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living.
Like Beltane, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the 'spirits' or 'fairies', could more easily come into our world. Most scholars see the Aos Sí as remnants of the pagan gods and nature spirits. At Samhain, it was believed that the Aos Sí needed to be propitiated to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink were left outside for them. The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them.
Although, from the date, the Ghost Festival is probably closer to the end of astronomical summer rather than Halloween's beginning of winter. CMIIW
There's also the "hungry ghosts" out looking for food, alike to the western spirits doing less-friendly "trick or treat".
Honestly, I still can't believe two myths from the opposite sides of the planet can be this similar. I might buy it if someone said things like this actually exist.
It's sort of like how most cultures have something like a dragon in their folklore, even though as far as any one knows, no such animal has ever really existed.
It's sort of like how most cultures have something like a dragon in their folklore, even though as far as any one knows, no such animal has ever really existed.
Well, a lot of people theorize that the reason so many cultures believe in dragons is because people stumbled upon dinosaur bones and were trying to come up with some kind of explanation for these bones.
...Yuu-chan, that's a snake gourd nanodesu.That's amaaaziiinnnggg...Paper lanterns, you say?Oi! Wake the hell up, Tatsuta!!And then if we whack a face on them, that'd be fine, right?I really did see it, dammit!!A Jack-o-lantern is a lantern, so that'd be a paper lantern, right?All done!!It's coming up to Halloween and all, but we've got no pumpkins...We've got those!The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons!It's not the end of September...? ah, whatever.
