7th Month Ghost Festival - Mum and Dad

Commonly called "Ghost Festival" or "Mid-July Festival", the Hungry Ghost Festival falls on the fifteenth of every lunar July.

In ancient Chinese folk culture, people believe lunar July is a month for ghosts, something like Western culture's Halloween. It is believed that the gates of hell are thrown open, releasing hungry ghosts to wander on the earth in search of food. So people light up lanterns on roadsides, put lanterns in the river and provide shoes for the convenience of the ghosts. And some people pray for their ancestors to bless later generations.

This is the usual set up for praying to my mum and dad, except for the cupcakes. I've made them extra colorful on purpose as my mum loves pretty things.

Although they are obviously gone from this world and of course they are not able to taste the food, but I still insist on going through this as it is one of the traditional practise of the chinese which my children should know.

What we do here is while waiting for the joss sticks to burn out, we just hang out together to chit chat with the cousins, or reminsce about the past.