Feeding the Hungry Ghosts

Hungry Ghosts are pitiable creatures.  They have huge, empty stomachs, but their mouths are too small to take in food.  They are doomed to live with incessant craving. 

It is believed for one long lunar month the Gates of Hell are opened and restless spirits released to roam the Earth.

Tracing back to the Ullambana Sutra and the Buddha's disciple Mahamaudgalyayana, Yu Lan (Hungry Ghost) Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and celebrated by Chinese in many countries.  By luck, we just happened to be visiting Hong Kong during this time and were able to participate in giving these poor creatures some relief.

During the seventh moon in the Chinese lunar calendar, the living make efforts to appease these restless spirits/transient ghosts, while feeding their own ancestors - particularly on the 15th day, which is the Yu Lan or Hungry Ghost Festival. 

To celebrate, roadside fires are lit and people burn offerings for ghosts and ancestors to use in the afterlife.  Our celebration included the burning of incense and offering of joss paper which included faux money (Hell Money), gold bars, silver bars, flowers and brightly colored clothes.  In other roadside fires, we saw wine and food also offered.

What an amazing experience, we were honored to learn about this tradition and join in the city's living culture!

What is Your Diversity Story?

Through sharing of personal diversity dimensions (see the wheel in the bottom right corner) people can better understand the plethora of experiences that lead us to live in a diverse environment, even if we don’t always recognize it.

My workplace has launched it’s 3Q Diversity Campaign focused on “Diversity Is Where I Am From”. While the work links won’t work, there are certainly a number of ways all can share their Diversity story.

Here are three ways you can participate:

1) Submit your Diversity Is Who I am Story within the comments below and read comment on other’s submitted stories.

2) Use Tagxedo (http://www.tagxedo.com/) to create a word cloud in the shape you want with words that best describe you.

3) Share your “transportation” vehicle for the Diversity & Inclusion Road. Don’t forget to share why it represents you!

I love this quarter’s campaign theme as it allows each of us to tell our unique story.

What is YOUR Diversity story?