Ching Ming observances keep spirits content

Spread out the feast, pour the best whiskey, light the incense and burn plenty of gold paper ingots for your family’s ancestors during the Ching Ming season. If you neglect to do so, their spirits might come back to haunt you a bit later in the year, during the Hungry Ghost Festival.

This may sound like a ghost story, but "scare tactics" are a part of all religions, says Jay Saka­shita, an assistant religion professor at Leeward Community College.

"In all religions there are all kinds of stories that if you don’t do right, there’s some kind of consequence. For the beginner, I think it’s an extra incentive to do what is right," he said. "I tell my son at Christmas, ‘You’d better be good, otherwise …" he said, chuckling. Saka­shita added, "But as he grows older, hopefully he’ll realize that you don’t need that anymore to do what’s right."

In Chinese culture, filial piety — caring for one’s parents — is the primary virtue for the living, but it’s also expressed toward previous generations beyond the grave in gratitude for laying the foundation of one’s family. Ching Ming, a springtime holiday observed by many local Chinese families, started April 6 and continues until May 6 this year. The season includes a ritual commonly called "bai san," or "grave-sweeping day."

"Temples make special offerings during this time to appease the spirits so that they will not cause harm or bring misfortune to the living," Saka­shita said. "Spirits that don’t have family to care for them end up as lonely and hungry ghosts," he added. They are released from the underworld during the Ghost Festival, which starts in late July this year.

During the summer festival, "You cannot travel, you shouldn’t have surgery or go into the water (to swim) because the spirits are lonely and they’re looking for companions and they’re going to take you. … You also don’t want to give birth," move to a new home or start any important venture, Saka­shita said, recalling a friend who scheduled a cesarean section to be sure she wouldn’t give birth during the monthlong observance.

One warning many Chinese and Japa­nese kids have heard growing up is never to stick their chopsticks vertically into the middle of a bowl of rice. That’s because the upright position is part of certain funeral rituals that invite dead spirits.

"The nice thing about Asian religions is you can pick and choose and blend. In Chinese religions there’s an emphasis on harmony, on blending, balance. You probably get conflicting ideas about what this is for, what that’s for, and that’s fine because everybody experiences truth, beauty and fear differently, and they express it differently," Saka­shita said.

"It is said that religion is like a tree. So Buddhism is like the trunk, Confucianism is the flowers and the leaves, and Taoism is the roots and maybe the sap is folk religion. So you can’t separate," he said.

Among Chinese beliefs is that a person’s soul consists of two aspects, yin and yang. "Yin is heavy, so yin goes down; yang is light, so yang goes up. At death the yang part of your soul goes up to heaven, and the yin part goes down to the underworld. Chinese religions refer to varying types of hells.

However, Sakashita says, "‘Hell’ is really an inaccurate word because it’s not all places of punishment. In some of the levels it’s basically an extension of this life. They (the souls) need money, they travel, they enjoy things. But if you don’t send them money, then these spirits get lonely, hungry. So, when they get released during ghost festival, they can cause trouble."

Sakashita is personally familiar with these customs because his wife, Pauline, is a Chinese Buddhist from Singapore who burns offerings every two weeks in the furnaces fronting the Kuan Yin Temple in Kalihi.

She and other members burn paper replicas of money, passports, houses, cars, clothing and incense from "spirit stores" in Chinatown.

Japanese culture also includes a season to honor the dead. During summertime obon "you’re celebrating the return of these family spirits, and they’re happy for the most part. The Chinese hungry spirits are not (happy) for the most part," he said. "I always joke with my wife that Japa­nese Buddhism is better!"

He continued, "In Chinese Buddhism everyone goes to hell — well, a part … goes to hell. In Japa­nese Buddhism there really isn’t a hell. … There are hells mentioned in Buddhist scripture, but the hells are mostly in theory only and not usually a factor in practice."

Saka­shita added, "When a Japa­nese person dies, the funeral conducted is to transform the spirit of the deceased into a buddha (a Buddhist monk or nun)."