Month-long Hungry Ghost Fest meant to allow flexible hosting of events — Leader
KUCHING: The one-month period (Aug 8-Sept 6) allocated for this year’s Hungry Ghost Festival should offer flexibility to the commi ees of temples and associations in running their programmes, said Kuching Chinese Community Charitable Trust chairman Datuk Richard Wee.
This, he pointed out, would be er facilitate those in the rural areas where they would usually plan for festival earlier than the actual date.
Widely known as ‘Zhong Yuan Jie’, the Hungry Ghost Festival is observed on the 15th night of the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar, which means Aug 22 for this year.
Traditionally, the entire seventh month of the lunar year is regarded as the ‘Ghost Month’.
“The (one-month) time frame is given so that some temples and associations, particularly those in the rural areas, can do it earlier.
“The flexibility is there so that no two temples or associations would hold the festival at the same time,” he said when contacted by The Borneo Post yesterday.
According to Wee, the Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) have conducted discussions with the relevant parties before formulating the standard operating procedures (SOP) for the festival.
“In fact, Kuching South Mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng was the one who suggested the onemonth time-frame.
“We agree that flexibility should be given to all the temples and associations,” said Richard Wee, who is also president of Sarawak Federation of Chinese Associations.
He added that major temples and associations would host the festival either on the day itself, or a day before or a er the set date.
On Thursday, the State Disaster Management Commi ee (SDMC) and Unifor released the SOP, which stated that eligible houses of worship or associations would be allowed to hold the festival between Aug 8 and Sept 6 this year, and only fully-vaccinated individuals would be allowed to a end the festival.
The SOP said only houses of worship or associations gaze ed under the Non-Islamic Charitable Trust Board under the Charitable Trust Ordinance 1994, or registered with the Registrar of the Societies (RoS) under the Societies Act 1966 (Act 335), would be allowed to organise and hold the festival.
A maximum of 50 people would are allowed for indoor venues, or 100 for outdoor venues at any one time, and any event could only be held between 6am and 10pm.