Cover Joss paper, traditional paper craft items, are burnt as offerings during rituals such as those taking place during the Hungry Ghost Festival (Photo: Elizabeth/ Pexels)
Joss paper, traditional paper craft items, are burnt as offerings during rituals such as those taking place during the Hungry Ghost Festival (Photo: Elizabeth/ Pexels)
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We explore how the city’s Chiu Chow community feeds protective gods and wandering spirits during the month-long Hungry Ghost Festival
Food plays an essential role in Hong Kong’s traditional festivals. While many associate this with sharing mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival or enjoying rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival, the connection runs deeper. Offerings such as fruit, tea and Chinese rice wine frequently appear on altars and ritual tables, but certain occasions call for more thoughtful preparations.
One such event is the Hungry Ghost Festival, also known as Yu Lan Festival and Zhong Yuan Festival, a month-long observance when the human and spiritual realms are believed to be most closely connected. Often likened to a Chinese version of Halloween, the festival is surrounded by popular precautions taken to avoid attracting uninvited spirits, such as returning home early and bringing in laundry before nightfall. While common customs centre on avoidance, traditional rituals actively seek to appease ‘hungry ghosts’, fittingly, through food offerings.
Even after the main festival day passes, communities across Hong Kong continue their observances with traditional rituals, worship and gatherings. Here, we delve deeper into the Yu Lan practices of the city's Chiu Chow community to explore why food and feasting remain central to the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Read more: Why does the Dragon Boat Festival matter to Chinese communities?
Why are ghosts hungry?
Above A traditional Chinese family grave (Photo: Oatjo/ Getty Images)
A traditional Chinese family grave (Photo: Oatjo/ Getty Images)
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To understand why these spirits are considered ‘hungry’, it helps to look at how death and the afterlife are viewed in Chinese folk religion. Departed souls are believed to continue living as they did in the physical world, requiring food, shelter and money. Surviving kin present offerings, such as burning joss paper (traditional paper craft that ranges from ‘ghost’ money to houses, cars, clothes and apartment blocks) and leaving food at ancestral altars, to ensure their wellbeing.
The term ‘hungry’ is therefore more symbolic than literal. In traditional belief, it refers to spirits without surviving family or a proper place of remembrance who receive no necessities in the afterlife. Left uncared for, these spirits eventually go ‘hungry’. During spiritually sensitive periods like the Hungry Ghost Festival, they are believed to wander into the human realm, potentially targeting unsuspecting individuals.
Feeding deities
Above A Chiu Chow paper craft statue of the Ghost Master, considered the guardian of wandering spirits during Hungry Ghost Festival rituals (Photo: Pete Miller Portraits/ Pexels)
A Chiu Chow paper craft statue of the Ghost Master, considered the guardian of wandering spirits during Hungry Ghost Festival rituals (Photo: Pete Miller Portraits/ Pexels)
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For Hong Kong’s Chiu Chow community, the Yu Lan Festival is a collective effort to appease not only wandering spirits, but also the deities and ancestors who protect the living from them. According to Anven Wu, chairman of the Yu Lan Festival Safeguard Committee and executive vice chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Chiu Chow Community Organisations, the distinction is clear in the types of food offered: tribute or relief.
Above Traditional Chiu Chow treats presented as tribute offerings (Photo: Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Office)
Traditional Chiu Chow treats presented as tribute offerings (Photo: Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Office)
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Tribute refers to offerings dedicated to the supreme deities of Chiu Chow folklore. These include “tea, wine, soup, rice, vegetarian dishes, grains, flour-moulded animals and five types of fruits” alongside Chiu Chow specialities such as “peanut candies, bean syrup cakes, five-colour pastries and ‘sugar towers’, which are edible sculptures of feng shui towers symbolising good luck. “Since offerings in the tribute category carry auspicious meanings, they’re traditionally handed out to directors and donors as gifts after the ritual,” says Wu.
Feeding ghosts
Above Typical food offerings for ghosts (Photo: Darren Lee/ Getty Images)
Typical food offerings for ghosts (Photo: Darren Lee/ Getty Images)
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Relief offerings, reserved for wandering spirits, typically consist of rice, bean sprouts and tofu. “The third day of the festival is when the ‘Flaming Mouth’ ritual takes place,” says Wu. “A Vajra Master [a qualified spiritual teacher of esoteric Buddhism] creates a protective boundary around the rice altar, manifests as Guanyin [the goddess of compassion and mercy], and invites the spirits to feast. Through chanting, physical food is converted into energy for the ghosts to consume.”
According to the Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Database, the term ‘flaming mouth’ is used to refer to wandering spirits by various Cantonese communities. According to legend, these ghosts “have a throat as narrow as a needle, and breathes fire.” In vernacular terms, the name also correlates to the fierceness, and therefore potential dangerousness, of the ghost.
The choice of food is intentional. Wu explains, “According to legend, ‘flaming-mouth’ ghosts breathe fire and have extremely narrow throats. So, soft, easily swallowable foods are provided so they can be consumed without difficulty.”
Feeding the people
Above Offerings of meat, fruits and rice (Photo: EnchantedFairy/ Getty Images)
Offerings of meat, fruits and rice (Photo: EnchantedFairy/ Getty Images)
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Wu stresses the social importance of these rituals in the past, a time when resources were scarce and poverty was widespread within the community. Offerings such as rice, vegetables, tofu, fruits and other edible items left over from these rituals were distributed to the impoverished. Meanwhile, “festival kitchens served Chiu Chow rice porridge with salted vegetables, peanuts and fresh produce to support volunteers and staff.”
Above Competitions at the Yu Lan Cultural Festival (Photo: Yu Lan Cultural Festival/ Facebook)
Competitions at the Yu Lan Cultural Festival (Photo: Yu Lan Cultural Festival/ Facebook)
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Today, the Hungry Ghost Festival remains an important social occasion for Hong Kong’s Chiu Chow community. The Yu Lan Festival Safeguard Committee organises annual public celebrations, educational seminars and workshops that keep these traditional practices in the spotlight. In recent years, Wu and his team have also introduced trendy elements into festival programmes, aiming to engage a younger audience. These include games, cultural experiences and transforming classic rituals such as the ‘catching loneliness’ rite, where festivalgoers scramble for offerings like food, kitchenware and clothes thrown out by donors, into competitions that focus more on athletic strength, skill and agility.
The Yu Lan Cultural Festival 2026 will take place at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay from September 4 to 6. The festival is free to enter.
Formerly a lifestyle editor, Celia is now an Associate Dining Editor at Tatler Hong Kong, where she covers local dining stories with a strong sense of narrative and cultural context. She focuses on the people, places and moments shaping the city’s food scene, bringing a storytelling-led approach to restaurant features, chef profiles and on-the-ground coverage.
