Hungry Ghost Festival 2025: The Gates of Hell Are Open

Description

Each year during the seventh lunar month — from 23 August to 21 September 2025, with the main Hungry Ghost Festival on 6 September — Ghost Month transforms Hong Kong into a bridge between worlds. Moreton Terrace Temporary Playground hosts the grand Yu Lan Cultural Festival from 12 to 14 September, featuring tea ceremony and dumpling making workshops. The festival also includes immersive interactive theatre such as Come Home to Depart, a touching family drama performed at festival venues throughout the month.

Neighbourhoods across the city come alive with street-side offerings as residents burn joss paper, incense and elaborate papier-mâché replicas to ensure deceased relatives enjoy comfortable afterlives. The festival blends Buddhist compassion, Taoist ritual and ancestral worship into Hong Kong’s distinctive interpretation where communities “worship gods, appease ghosts and commemorate ancestors.” Chiu Chow traditions dominate the celebration, with over 60 Yu Lan festivals held across the territory, featuring towering Ghost King effigies and opera performances specifically for wandering spirits. Traditional taboos guide behaviour throughout the month, from avoiding major life changes to showing respect for spiritual activities, creating a city-wide observance that connects Hong Kong’s past with its present.