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Lesson Transcript

Hey guys, welcome back to Cantonese holiday words. In this lesson, we are going to talk about Hong Kong festival.
It is the Ghost Festival. It’s called 盂蘭節 (jyu4 laan4 zit3). It is in the 7th month of the Chinese calendar. This year it’s late August. Next year, it’s around mid-August. According to traditional Chinese beliefs, there are restless spirits roaming in earth and we are supposed to pay respect to our ancestors to make them happy and to please other ghosts not to do anything that might anger them.
So 盂蘭節 (jyu4 laan4 zit3) in a sentence… 盂蘭節有好多禁忌。(jyu4 laan4 zit3 jau5 hou2 do1 gam3 gei6.) “There are lot of taboos for the Ghost festival.” Yeah, we are very superstitious.
鬼 (gwai2) ghost, 鬼 (gwai2).
Some people call that festival a hungry ghost festival as well because those restless spirits are too hungry or they died out of starvation. People put incense or food outside for roaming spirits, roaming ghosts. Hopefully they will be satisfied.
時運低嘅話，你會見到鬼。(si4 wan6 dai1 ge3 waa2, nei5 wui5 gin3 dou2 gwai2.) “If you are in bad luck, you will see ghosts.” I hope you don’t.
恐怖片 (hung2 bou3 pin2) Horror movies.
It is especially common to have new horror movies coming out around the ghost festivals in Hong Kong. It is quite scary for me, so I don’t usually watch it, but for people who like scary movies, it’s really stimulating, it’s really exciting.
So in a sentence, 恐怖片 (hung2 bou3 pin2), 我唔鍾意睇恐怖片，我好驚。(ngo5 m4 zung1 ji3 tai2 hung2 bou3 pin2, ngo5 hou2 geng1.) “I don’t like to see horror movie, I get scared easily.”
陰司紙 (jam1 si1 zi2) Joss paper or ghost money.
So we burn Joss paper and then our ancestor or the ghost will receive the money and they can spend it in the underworld.
唔好喺度燒陰司紙，嚇親人㗎！(m4 hou2 hai2 dou6 siu1 jam1 si1 zi2, haak3 can1 jan4 gaa3!) “Don’t burn Joss paper here. It will scare people away.” Sometimes people burn Joss paper where there are car accidents or casualties hoping that the victim will be appeased.
神功戲 (san4 gung1 hei3) Chinese Opera that is performed on the festival.
It’s one of the highlight for the ghost festival where they will set up temporary bamboo stage and perform Chinese Opera. It’s a kind of entertainment for human and ghosts that we both enjoy. If you happen to go, you will notice there is one side that has a lot of empty seats and one side that is full of people. So don’t go to the side where all the empty seats are because that side is likely to be reserved for the dead, for the ghosts. If you sit over there, it’s like you are sitting on their lap and it offends them. So remember that.
So that’s it for today. Today we talked about the ghost festival and if you like it, subscribe and check out CantoneseClass101.com and I will see you next time in more Cantonese videos, bye.

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