The 7th Lunar Month, Is it an auspicious month or not?

The 7th lunar month is regarded as the Ghost Month by the Chinese since the Tang Dynasty. The Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan) is observed on the 14th day of the month and the Ghost Day is on the 15th day, the full moon day of the month. On this month the gate of Hell realm is open for the ghosts and spirits to visit the living.

On the eve of the Ghost Day, plenty of food, joss sticks, joss paper, candles and hell money are burned by the road sides to offer to the ghosts and spirits. They also have stage shows for the "good brothers" to enjoy themselves while they are visiting. While welcoming them in such grand ways, it's also to appease the ghosts so that they won't disturb the living and to bring good luck to the living.

During this month, there will be no marriages, moving houses or opening new business by Chinese. No purchasing new furniture, no nights out for the children and no vacation trips. It's believed (because there is no statistic to support it) that during this month, accidents causing loss of lives are prone to happen and death by drowning is also easy to happen because of the doing of some evil ghosts. In this way, the 7th lunar month is considered as an inauspicious month. Ask any Chinese fengshui master, they all agree to it. Even many lay Buddhists believe so.

For Buddhists, it is a different story. It is regarded as an auspicious month. The Ullambana Festival is held on the 15th day. I've copied a paragraph from Wikipedia regarding the 7th lunar month in the Buddhist's perspective.

To Buddhists, the seventh lunar month is a month of joy. This is because the fifteenth day of the seventh month is often known as the Buddha's joyful day and the day of rejoice for monks. The origins of the Buddha's joyful day can be found in various scriptures. When the Buddha was alive, his disciples meditated in the forests of India during the rainy season of summer. Three months later, on the fifteen day of the seventh month, they would emerge from the forests to celebrate the completion of their meditation and report their progress to the Buddha. In the Ullambana Sutra, the Buddha instructs his disciple Maudgalyāyana on how to obtain liberation for his mother, who had been reborn into a lower realm, by making food offerings to the sangha on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Because the number of monks who attained enlightenment during that period was high, the Buddha was very pleased.

A translation of the Ullambana Sutra can be found here. Having read this sutra, one will realized why this is a very holy month for the Buddhists to repay parents' kindness. Buddhists having taken refuge in the Triple Jewel should observe the 15th day of the 7th month as taught by Buddha and not by the way of Chinese folklore. The lay Buddhists view of the 7th month as inauspicious is delusional and to be discarded. This is a holy month for the Buddhists to fulfill their filial duty.

Source: dhammaprotector.blogspot.com (Sep. 2, 2009)