5 Things You & Your Pets Should Avoid During Hungry Ghost Festival

The Hungry Ghost Festival, which is held every 15th day of this 7th lunar month, is where spirits are believed to be wandering around in the land of living from the underworld. People burn offerings of joss paper, foods like instant noodles, fruits, uncooked rice, candies, etc. & offer entertainment for the spirits. And like every other occasion, there are things we should avoid doing during this season.

Here are things you & your pets should avoid doing during Hungry Ghost Festival:

Image from: Galen Crout from Unsplash

As you know by now, there are lots of offerings in the streets this season! Joss sticks & food offering are the most common offerings you might see in the streets and it is said to not touch and step unto these offerings. Carefully watch where you and your pet are going when you do your daily walks to avoid touching or stepping on them. Another option is walking first in the area and see which are safe for walkies or your pet might get attracted and try to eat the food offerings.

Image from: Thomas Bormans from Unsplash

Getai is an event held to entertain wandering spirits every Hungry Ghost Festival season. Spirits are treated as VIPs where front seats are dedicated only for them. Events like this can be really loud and it can be too loud for your pets' ears as their sense of hearing is much stronger than us humans so it might be best to not bring your pets to these events to avoid stressing them out.

Image from: Drew Hays from Unsplash

The burning offerings made this Hungry Ghost Festival can create a lot of haze which can be bad for you and your pets' health when inhaled too much. To avoid all these haze from coming into your house, you can close the windows and try to stay away from areas where there's a lot of haze.

Image from: Andriyko Podilnyk from Unsplash

It is tempting to pick up things that looks attractive and colorful like the offerings, food, & coins that you and your pets might find on the streets but some these offerings are purposely left for wandering spirits. If it's tempting for you, imagine how tempting it is for your curious pets! Help your pets avoid picking up these things to avoid upsetting spirits who own them and the people who put them where they are.

Image from: Katie Bernotsky from Unsplash

It is advised to avoid wearing anything red this season as it attracts spirits. Red is attention-grabbing already and it’ll catch the eye of the spirits too! You may wanna skip all of you and your pets' red clothes for a while if this is the case if you don't want to attract some spirits during this season. Besides, most of us surely got dressed up with our pets in red and white last National Day of Singapore right? You can just put in your closet for a month and save it for the next occasions.

As to any occasion, respect is key. It is important to be respectful and take precautions so that you and your pets don't accidentally offend anyone, whether people or spirits. We do hope these tips would help you and your pets avoid doing things that shouldn't be done during this time of the year

Share this with your fellow pet owners and feel free to leave a comment down below about you & your pet's experiences during Hungry Ghost Festival, we would also love to read them!

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