Ghost Month in Taiwan

Hsinchu is on the west coast of Taiwan, so we had the 13,000 foot tall Central Mountain Range to shield us from the worst of Typhoon Sepat's wrath on the east coast. Instead of untold destruction, we received 72 hours of rain. Not too bad.

When you walk outside and your neighbors are standing in front of their homes with full tables of food, burning incense, and repeatedly tossing fake money into flaming waste paper baskets, you know it’s Ghost Month. Chinese traditional religion stipulates that the Gates of Hell open on the first day of the seventh lunar month and ancestors get a second chance to make amends for their sins on earth. Taiwanese offer food and money to the ghosts for several hours before dinner-time then go inside to finish the leftovers. The meals are complete and delicious, including dishes of chicken, pork, and rice, as well as full pineapples, cantaloupes, gineps, and boxes of fruit juice. I saw some neighbors had set out sixteen-ounce cans of Miller High Life. Yet another reason to be good to your family in this world – they’ll keep you stocked with beer in the next.

Below – A guerilla-style photo of a Ghost Month table setting and fake-money trash bin. Photo 2 - Like everything else, the Taiwanese celebrate Ghost Month with fireworks.