Ullambana Festival Ceremony

Date: September 5 (Friday) – September 6 (Saturday), 2025
Location: Mahayana Temple (City Campus)
133 Canal Street, New York, NY 10002

We sincerely invite you to join the Ullambana Festival Ceremony at Mahayana Temple, a sacred event dedicated to honoring and liberating ancestors and all sentient beings. Rooted in the profound compassion of Maudgalyayana’s filial piety, the Ullambana Festival emphasizes gratitude, remembrance, and the power of collective merit through Buddhist practice.

Through chanting, offering, and sincere repentance, we seek to generate blessings for the living and liberation for the departed. Let us come together in compassion to cultivate merit and wisdom, and to dedicate this goodness to our ancestors, parents, and all beings in need.

The Origins of the Ullambana Festival

The Ullambana Festival, known as the Ghost Festival in Chinese Buddhism, originates from the story of Maudgalyayana (also known as Mahāmaudgalyāyana), one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples renowned for his supernatural powers. After attaining enlightenment, Maudgalyayana sought to repay the kindness of his deceased mother. Using his clairvoyant abilities, he discovered that she had been reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts (preta) and was suffering immensely. He attempted to offer her food, but it transformed into flames upon reaching her mouth.​

Distressed, Maudgalyayana approached the Buddha for guidance. The Buddha explained that individual efforts were insufficient to alleviate his mother’s suffering. He advised Maudgalyayana to make offerings to the monastic community on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, coinciding with the end of the monks’ summer retreat. By doing so, the collective merit generated would liberate his mother from her torment. Maudgalyayana followed this instruction, and his mother was released from the realm of hungry ghosts.

This event established the Ullambana Festival as a time for Buddhists to honor their ancestors and perform acts of generosity, particularly towards the monastic community, to transfer merit to deceased relatives and all sentient beings. The festival embodies themes of filial piety, compassion, and the transformative power of collective merit.

• • The Ullambana Festival is typically celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, though in regions like Guangdong and Hong Kong, it may occur on the 14th.
  • Key customs include offering sacrifices, burning joss paper, releasing river lanterns, and conducting rituals.
  • The festival emphasizes filial piety, honoring ancestors, and appeasing spirits, with variations across regions.

• • Offering Sacrifices: Families prepare food, incense, candles, and paper money, either placed on altars or burned to provide for ancestors.
  • Burning Joss Paper: Especially in Hong Kong and Macau, burning joss paper or “street clothes” is common from the 1st to the 14th of the seventh month to benefit wandering spirits (Ullambana Festival).
  • Releasing River Lanterns: Small lanterns are set afloat on rivers to guide spirits or bring good fortune, a practice particularly popular in southern China (Ghost Festival).
  • Rituals and Ceremonies: Buddhist chanting or Taoist rites are conducted to appease spirits and ensure peace for the living.

• • In northern China, the festival is strictly observed on the 15th, while southern areas like Guangdong may celebrate a day earlier.
  • Urban areas focus on burning paper offerings and releasing lanterns, whereas rural regions may include roadside sacrifices or communal rituals.
  • Recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in China, the festival highlights its enduring importance (Ghost Festival).

For more information, please email: info@mahayana.us
Visit our website: https://en.mahayana.us