Halloween comes only a couple of months after the Hungry Ghost Festival, but the two events have very different views towards ghosts. Fung shui master 'Ghostbuster' Telly Ng Pui-fu says traditional Chinese beliefs hold that ghosts are entities to be respected - and avoided. But Halloween takes on a completely different approach, with people dressing up and parading around in ghoulish costumes. Mr Ng warns people who are thinking of visiting a real haunted house to be very, very careful. 'Visiting a haunted house is like to digging your own grave,' said Mr Ng. 'Human beings have their own space to live in while the spirits have theirs. A haunted house is filled with ghostly and vengeful vibes. Visiting a haunted house would be like contacting them [the ghosts] on purpose. If you are unfortunate, you will encounter them.' Daredevils who plan to visit a haunted location tonight are advised by Mr Ng to carry amulets such as red agates and charms. Don't kiss or hug in haunted places because it is 'highly disrespectful' behaviour, he added. People should not go straight home after visiting a haunted house. Instead, stop and have a late-night snack in a busy place. Also, leap over a pot of burning newspaper before you walk into your home. According to Mr Ng, words are related to gods and newspapers stand for righteousness. 'If you go to crowded places after visiting a haunted house, this can disperse the bad vibes. Otherwise there is a chance that the ghosts will follow you home,' Mr Ng said. Many cultures have ghost festivals. The Hungry Ghost Festival is one of the most important events in Chinese culture. Also known as Yu Lan, the festival involves rituals of making offerings of food, paper and fake money to satisfy the hungry spirits. Although the festival is now a popular backdrop in horror movies, Mr Ng said the origin of the festival can be traced back to a touching and heart-warming tale about a mother and son. According to legend, Mu-lin - a powerful monk under Buddha - discovered that his mother was a hungry ghost who was suffering in hell due to her misdeeds in life. The monk used his magical powers to offer food to his mother, but the food turned into charcoal in his mother's hands. Mu-lin sought the advice of Buddha, who told him to ask monks and other people to recite sacred scripts and perform rituals on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar in order to temporarily release all hungry ghosts - including his mother - to receive food. 'The Yu Lan Festival is originally a day of filial piety and merciful giving,' Mr Ng explained. In Japan, kwaidan is a folktale about the supernatural. In fact, ghosts, spirits and demons in many Japanese legends are rather benign and are less evil than their western counterparts. According to cultural critic Tong Ching-siu, the background of Japanese religion is Shinto, which believes that all things in the world - including mountains, rivers, trees and animals - have their own spirits. Spirits are therefore around us all the time. 'Because all things have spirits, the [supernatural] legends describe how everyone must learn to live peacefully with things in the supernatural realm,' Mr Tong explained. In ancient Japan, friends would gather together to tell ghost stories. An adjacent room would hold 100 lit candles. When a person finished telling a story, he or she should go into the room and blow out a candle. The storytelling session would end at the 99th story because it was believed that a spooky occurance would happen if the 100th kwaidan was told.
