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Ghost Festival rites is formally linked to three religions in this atlas, Chinese Folk Religion, Buddhism and Taoism, all three links carrying no further comment at the religion level. Its own description differentiates them anyway, by role rather than by prose about doctrine.

The Folk Practice Underneath

"The Ghost Festival rites are the observances of the seventh lunar month, and especially of its fifteenth day, when the gate of the underworld is held to open and the dead return to the world of the living. Families set out food, burn incense and offer paper money and paper goods to their own ancestors and, importantly, to the hungry ghosts, the wandering dead who have no descendants to care for them and who must be fed and placated lest they cause harm... communities float lanterns on water to guide them."

Two Doctrinal Streams Laid Over One Practice

"The occasion joins two streams, the Buddhist Ullambana rite of delivering ancestors from suffering and the Daoist middle-prime festival of the same day, and it expresses the reciprocal duty of the living not only to their own forebears but to the anonymous dead at large." One folk observance, one Buddhist rite of deliverance and one Daoist calendar festival, three distinct roles for a single day.

Where To Read More

• Ghost Festival ritesDevotional RitualsThe shared occasion; three religions counted, each carrying a distinct role
• Chinese Folk ReligionPolytheistic (Folk)The folk practice itself, offerings to ancestors and hungry ghosts, lanterns floated to guide them
• BuddhismDharmic (Nontheistic)The Ullambana rite of delivering ancestors from suffering
• TaoismChinese (Philosophical-Religious)The middle-prime festival observed on the identical day