In Ghost Festival event, Chiayi honors ghosts of all genders

Taipei, Sept. 15 (CNA) A Taiwanese religious event in Chiayi County's Minxiong Township observing Ghost Festival, a month-long festival with roots in Taoism and Buddhism, incorporated gender-diverse elements into its traditional practices for the first time.

Chiayi County's gender diversity community health service center said it designed the new features, including a drag queen stage and rainbow colored decorations, to honor the deceased -- no matter whether they were male, female or non-binary.

Ghost Festival, which falls in the seventh month of the lunar calendar and runs from Aug. 23 to Sept. 21 this year, is when many Taiwanese believe the spirits of the dead return to the human world.

Ceremonial food offerings, incense burning and ritual chanting help feed and comfort these wandering spirits so they can find peace and be steered away from causing misfortune, according to traditional Taiwanese religious beliefs.

In addition to displaying a traditional papier mâché statue of the temple's main deity Ulkāmukha Pretarāja, the organizers of the festival held from Friday to Sunday made symbolic offerings of gender-neutral items and items associated with non-traditional gender lifestyles.

The temple also provided a "gender-friendly hall" for all spirits to rest, bathe and change clothes in, rather than spaces traditionally segregated on the basis of gender.

Lin Mao-hsien (林茂賢), associate professor with the Department of Taiwanese Languages and Literature at National Taichung University of Education, praised the "sexual equality" ceremonial offering on Facebook after visiting the display.

Responding to Lin's post, one commenter suggested the breakthrough in incorporating gender-diverse elements in this religious event was an "even more difficult" feat than Mulian (目蓮) rescuing his mother from hell, a reference to a mythological tale in Chinese Buddhism.