Offering On Hungry Ghost Festival

Sunday being the Hungry Ghost Festival, it’s a day to venerate ancestors. It is a day where the doors of the underworld are most open. While it is recommended to offer incense on all days of Ghost Month to appease ghosts and ancestors alike, it is of extra importance on the day of the festival where food and drinks are most likely to be offered also.
　
The offerings vegetarian in nature, it is easy to forget about one thing. That offerings do not need to be grand or expensive, it doesn’t have to be much nor complex to make. All it needs to be is simple and appropriate. But what is appropriate? Vegetarian meals and what ones ancestors would enjoy seems to be the best answer I can give.
　
How much should be offered can be of an issue. How does one know the amount of offerings to give? To put it as bluntly as possible, a stick of incense, a glass of a drink and a bowl or dish of food. Of course other kinds of incense and bottles and cans of drinks can be given, it comes down to availability. Offer what can be given, it being a small amount or not does not matter.
　
Should what’s offered be consumed? If the offerings are to ancestors or even ghosts, no. It is considered inauspicious to do so, even considered to be highly unlucky to eat offerings. Interestingly, it is considered lucky to eat the offerings of gods, buddhas and bodhisattvas. This is due to the belief that offerings to ancestors and ghosts gain a yin/negative energy, with offerings to gods, buddhas and bodhisattvas gaining a yang/positive energy.

Bouncing Bet

Saponaria officinalis is the botanical name of the plant so commonly called Bouncing Bet, Sweet William and Common Soapwort. It is a perennial herb which is much grown for its flowers that come in dense clusters of pink to white in colour and have a fragrant smell. The flowers will grow in late spring. This plant will grow to a metre tall.
　
A hairless and erect plant, the leaves of bouncing bet is narrowly oval and greyish. Tending to grow in areas that are bushy, while also on roadsides and homes. The leaves of this plant used to be gathered and soaked or boiled in water, where the liquid that came to be from such was used as liquid soap, and can be used to wash ones hair.
　
Bouncing bet has the potential of being used as a groundcover thanks to its vigorous spreading. Well drained soil with a neutral to alkaline soil is needed to grow this plant, along with full sun or semi-shade. There is some tolerance to drought.
　
Best grown in sandy soil, bouncing bet does not deal as well with loam and clay soils. This plant is also hardy, growing in low to high moisture. Bouncing bet has rhizomes, and if allowed to, will spread using its root system at a quick rate. The very rhizomes can be used for soap.

20th Century Photographs

Going out place to place, amazing things can certainly be found. Markets can be a great source to be to find junk, even really worth while items. Go to a market and it is likely that one thing will catch an eye, it be of a small statue or a game.
　

I can say that fortune certainly went my way yesterday, for I went to a market itself and found three black and white photographs on their cardboard frames, the purchase was only $10. An amazing find for me, due to the interest in photography.

　

The three photographs may not sound much, but do have something to say both in the images and on the back of each. Two of them have a date on them and it is amazing these photographs are in such good conditions considering the age of them. It is a true wonder why the low price is there for all three.

　

I took a couple photos, of one of the photographs and what it says on the back of its frame. Indeed it says Xmas 1919, and another photograph purchased seems to be of the same young girl at least a year and a half earlier in February 1918.

　

Details of what had been purchased should have really been asked, it really could have told of the identities of the people photographed. Sadly, the seller may never been seen again, and it may have been that the very photographs were originally purchased from someone else before reaching my hands. It may never be known, but the mystery of the identity of the people photographed so long ago seems to be quite the allure to such photographs themselves.

Gods And Goddesses: Tai Sui

The Tai Sui, or Grand Duke of Jupiter, are a group of sixty gods whose names are difficult to find all at once. They all rule over a certain year, depending on the Chinese zodiac (one rules over the year of the Fire Dragon, another Water Dog, etc), taking charge of the well being of the mortal world. Many have a military background and hence are sometimes referred to as the Military Generals, but at times referred to as the Cycle Gods and Lords of the Year and Age.
　
Offending the Tai Sui is taken in care to not be done, as it is this group of gods that are in charge of ones fortunes. It is the deeds that the Tai Sui note of people, as it is happiness, health, luck and fortune that the Tai Sui will affect.
　
Ones head is generally advised to not point in the direction of the Tai Sui of the year, as it is seen as a way to offend the Tai Sui, with protective amulets seen as a way to deal with this offence. The direction of the Tai Sui depends on the animal of the year:
North if year of the rat.
Northeast if ox or tiger.
East if rabbit.
Southeast if dragon or snake.
South if horse.
Southwest if sheep or monkey.
West if rooster.
And northwest if dog or boar/pig.
　
In worship, the particular Tai Sui of the year is worshipped usually once or twice a month, with an altar set up. Worship will generally begin on the ninth day of the first lunar month, with offerings of incense, food and drinks and the asking of protection against evil, inauspicious energies and of blessings. This will generally continue every full moon until the end of the lunar year where the Tai Sui of the year will be given thanks, worship may fall under any day throughout the year however, with many giving worship on the first and fifteenth days of lunar months.

Totems: Gorilla

Gorillas are powerful apes with social behaviour, often seen in groups known as troops. With a keen sense of observation and great memories, it is the gorilla that will remember whom they can and cannot trust.
　
The gorilla totem asks a number of questions, one greatly relating to a single lesson. What role does one have within ones family? Each individual has a responsibility within a family, and the gorilla teaches that ones responsibility is important. Regardless of how small the responsibility is.
　
Many questions the gorilla asks is self and family orientated. Such as if one is being too materialistic and if ones family is suffering for being so. Questions that would be about the self and how family and friends are affected.
　
The importance of friends and family are what is told of by the gorilla totem. Family and friends are indeed important, especially to the gorilla. Such people are those who are cared for, loved, and the importance of them in ones life is what shouldn’t be forgotten.

Salvia elegans

Salvia elegans is known by its common name of Pineapple-Scented Sage or simply Pineapple Sage. A native of Mexico, it is a perennial growing 1m tall and 60cm wide with long ovate leaves. When crushed, the leaves give off the scent of pineapple. This plant can be used in a number of foods, drinks and as fresh or dry seasoning.
　
Good drainage is needed alongside full sun to partial shade. Salvia elegans has tubular red flowers which bloom at the end of summer to the end of autumn, allowing for softwood cuttings earlier in summer. It has some frost tolerance, but will die in colder climates making it an annual in some regions. It is a quick growing plant, with flowers that attract hummingbirds.
　
Propagation is easy with this semi-woody plant. Regular watering will be needed, but Salvia elegans is able to go a day or two without being watered. A herbal remedy can also be made with leaves if one wishes to do so.

Hungry Ghost Month

Already it is the month of the Hungry Ghost, where it started yesterday and shall end on the 28^th. It has been a fast few months, leaving wonder of how the Hungry Ghost Festival has come so close to the current date with so little notice. Unbelievable how this festival is so close, being on the 14^th.
　
Regardless, it is the month of the hungry ghost where the spirits of the dead roam the earth. A time seen by many unlucky, where spirits are appeased by the smell of burning incense and aroma of food. A time to be extra careful.