Ghost Month

Hebrews 2:15 talks about those "who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."  The meaning of that verse cannot be seen any more clearly, I don't think, than during Ghost Month in Singapore.  Ghost Month occurs during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, this year August 7 - September 4.  Buddhists and Taoists believe that their ancestors come back from the dead during this month and walk around on the earth. If these ghosts are not kept happy, or have not received enough offerings in the afterlife, they may hurt those who are still living.  So there are many extra offerings placed out, and many extra burnings of incense and joss paper.  Joss paper is explained a bit in part of an email I received from someone from church:  "For the Chinese, they offer anything they can imagine that the deceased liked while still alive. If you happen to walk past any shop selling joss papers and stuff, you will be amused. Paper computer, money, cigarettes, hats, clothing, etc., now durian is offered. What they did on earth, they imagine, they will do in hell."  (How striking that they know their ancestors are in hell!)

We often smelled the burning going on around us.  In addition to the extra offerings, some people hold feasts with empty seats for their ancestors' ghosts to sit at, and there are performances held (singing, dancing, etc.) in which the first row of seats is left open for the ghosts to use.  At the end of the month the gates of hell are again closed, so the ghosts can no longer roam the earth and cause harm to the people still living.  People can go back to swimming without fear of being drowned by an angry ghost, or move to a new house without fear of a ghost harming you or bringing bad luck to you.

 Offerings being made right outside the elevator to our flat

A burn barrel and offerings below our flat

An extra-large place for offerings on our street

This was only there for a few days.  The bottom is full of ashes.

Burn barrels, ashes, and offerings outside a Singapore mall

A sign on our way to the mall -- "Let's keep our environment
clean by practicing responsible joss paper burning."

People burning joss paper for their ancestors

This picture was taken a couple weeks before Ghost Month started.  This 

goes on all year in Singapore, but much more during Ghost Month.

Our church meets on the fourth floor of an industrial building.  

This offering was left out near the stairs on the third floor of that building.

The offering closer-up -- a complete waste of 

those little cookies, one of our kids thought :-)

A hell note

 Look at the amount!  This can supposedly be used by the dead

to buy things in the afterlife, or to buy their way out of hell.

Now you can see the bondage that the fear of death brings.  During Singapore's Ghost Month, several families in the PRC were touched by the loss of a dear relative or friend. When we see the fear of death that the unbelievers have, the comfort of us as God's people is all the more striking.  We do not have to keep our loved ones happy in the afterlife--they are perfectly happy with their Lord in heaven!  We do not expect that they are in hell and hope that they won't come back to earth to harm us--they are in the perfection of heaven, dwelling with God as "the spirits of just men made perfect"!  Here is the rest of the verse I quoted at the beginning of this blog, along with part of the verse before it:  "Through death (Jesus) might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."  Blessed deliverance!