Cathy and Gary's South East Asia Travel Pages
HUNGRY GHOST FESTIVAL
Por Tor Festival is held in Phuket Town and it is more commonly known as the Hungry Ghosts Festival.
This Chinese ancestor worshipping festival happens in the seventh Chinese lunar month as this is when the Chinese believe that the ancestors and spirits of the dead are released from the underworld to revisit their homes.
Food, sweets, fruits and drinks are all decorated beautifully and left for Par Tor Kong who is said to be the God of Devil, the purpose of this is to feed the hungry spirits.
One of the highlights and most popular offerings are the hundreds of beautiful red turtle cakes known as Ang Ku, the turtle symbolizes longevity, so worshippers believe these cakes will also prolong their own life and also bring them luck and success.
The turtle cakes are made from wheat flour and sugar dough.
The festival is a very important merit making festival but it is a very happy one with lots of fun and laughter, there are also many games for the children to play and win prizes, plus they are nonstop stage performances.
The amount of food left here for the spirits is amazing, hundreds of cooked chickens and absolutely beautiful fruit carvings. There is a photo of a pineapple as well and it is made of shredded lottery tickets!!
One of the most popular events were the huge poles that had a flag at the top with an amount of money, we watched this for ages oh by the way the wooden poles were coated in a thick grease, the aim is to get to the top and grab the flag.
So many boys tried this but only 2 made it.
Very entertaining and it looked like so much hard work.
