Chinese Ghost Holidays

Today is Halloween!! Yeah!!
But I am not going to talk about Halloween. Instead, I am going to talk about the "Chinese Halloween," the Ghost Holidays (or Ghost Festivals, I am not really sure about the translation).
There are four Ghost Holidays in China. One is in April. Others are in March, July, and October in lunar year.
The first one is on March 3rd in lunar year. It is not a nationwide Ghost Holiday. Only people from Southeastern China celebrate it. People believe ghosts will come to human world at that night, so, they set off firecrackers in front of their houses to scare the ghosts away.
The second one is on April 4th. We call it Qingming Festival. It is a national Festival. We go to cemeteries to visit our departed family members or friends. An interesting thing is we use paper to make spirit money and golds, and burn them. So, our departed family members and friends can receive them.

Here are two versions of spirit money. First is used by Chinese in America, and the second is the regular one used by Chinese people. The "person" on the spirit money is Yama, the king of Hell in China, just like Hades in the western world.
The third Ghost Holiday is July 15th in lunar year. We call it Zhongyuan Festival. People believe the gate of Hell will open on that day. So we think July in lunar year is an unlucky month. People usually make lotus-lanterns on this day, and put them on rivers. If the lanterns do not sink into the river, then the person who put this lantern will be lucky.

The last one is October 1st in lunar year. Chinese worship their ancestors on this day. People write their words down on a piece of special paper, and burn it. So, the ancestors can receive their words.
Most of Chinese are familiar with the first three festivals, but do not know the last one. Because of the globalization, many Chinese abandoned some ancient traditions and holidays. But, I think we should know our traditional holidays even though we do not celebrate them anymore.