[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-487051-105":59,"doc-detail-487051-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-hungry-ghost-festival-questions","The Hungry Ghost Festival - Questions","","Description of Singapore street getai during the Hungry Ghost Festival, explaining why the front row remains empty for honored unseen guests. Details the seventh lunar month beliefs about the afterlife gates opening, Ghost Day as the peak, and how families offer food and burn joss paper. Connects origins to Buddhist and Taoist roots and traces the evolution from older street opera to modern getai. Concludes with community behaviors and clarifies the festival is remembrance, not Halloween.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":20,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-hungry-ghost-festival-questions/487051/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-hungry-ghost-festival-questions/487051.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"dawugda","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-30",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why are the front row seats at a getai show kept empty?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"They are reserved for visiting spirits believed to attend the show, so no one sits there or moves in during the evening.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What does the last paragraph’s final sentence emphasize?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It reframes the empty chairs as a symbol of remembrance and duty, not fear, making sure neither the living nor the dead are forgotten.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How did the festival’s observance blend different religious traditions?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Historians trace it to Buddhist and Taoist roots, and many families today practice a combined blend, including different explanations for why the seventh month matters.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},487051,1790833685,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":19,"category_name":20,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":52,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},3985747870947,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Picture a bustling street stage in Singapore on a warm summer  \nnight, strings of lights blazing, singers belting out tunes, and a crowd of plastic chairs stretching back into the dark. Now look at the very front row: it is empty, and it will stay that way all evening. No one sits there by accident, and no one dares to move in, because those seats are reserved for guests you cannot see. This is a getai show during the Hungry Ghost Festival, a celebration held across China and much of Southeast Asia in the seventh month of the lunar calendar. For an entire month, families set out food, burn paper offerings, and stage loud entertainment in honor of spirits believed to be visiting the living.  \nThose empty chairs make more sense once you understand what people believe is happening during this month. According to tradition, the gates of the afterlife swing open, and the souls of the dead are free to wander among the living for several weeks. The fifteenth night of the seventh lunar month is considered the peak, sometimes called Ghost Day, when the boundary between worlds is thinnest. Because these visitors are thought to be hungry and restless, the living try to keep them content rather than frightened away. Offerings of rice, fruit, and roasted meats are laid out on tables, and the front row is left open so honored guests have the best seats in the house.  \nFeeding the spirits is only half the story, because the festival grew from two different religious traditions braided together. Historians trace it to both Buddhist and Taoist roots, which is why its customs can look slightly different from one temple or family to the next. In Buddhist teaching, the month is linked to a story about a devoted student named Mulian, who used offerings and the help of monks to relieve the suffering of his mother in the afterlife. In Taoist belief, the seventh month is tied to an official who pardons and oversees wandering souls. Rather than competing, these two explanations settled side by side over many centuries, and today most celebrants observe a blend of both.  \nThat blending is easiest to see in the objects people burn, which turn devotion into something you can watch curl into smoke. The most common offering is joss paper, thin sheets often printed to look like money, which families burn so relatives in the afterlife will not go without. Over time the offerings expanded far beyond paper cash: people now burn paper models of clothing, houses, cars, and even paper smartphones. The logic is consistent even when the objects are modern, because whatever a person might need in this life, they are believed to need in the next. You might argue that a paper cell phone is a strange gift for a ghost, but it fits a tradition that has always kept up with the times.  \nKeeping up with the times is exactly how the old street opera evolved into the flashy getai you would see today. For generations, communities hired Chinese opera troupes to perform on temporary stages, partly to entertain the living and partly to please the visiting spirits. In more recent decades, especially in Singapore and Malaysia, those quiet operas gave way to getai, live variety shows with pop songs, comedy, and dazzling lights. The performers still honor the old rule and leave that front row of seats empty, no matter how packed  \nthe rest of the crowd becomes. It is a striking mix: modern speakers and glittering costumes serving a custom older than any microphone.  \nThat respect for the unseen also shapes how neighbors treat one another during the seventh month. Some people avoid moving into a new home, starting big projects, or swimming late at night while the spirits are thought to be about, treating the month as a time for caution and care. It is important to understand that this festival is not a version of Halloween, even though both fall around the same season and both involve spirits. The Hungry Ghost Festival is an act of remembrance and duty toward one's own ancestors, clos","cbCaika3nbE5zFk1","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaika3nbE5zFk1","pdf",100884,"English","# Reading Comprehension Questions\n## Question 1: Why the front row seats are kept empty\n## Question 2: Role of the final sentence\n## Question 3: Central idea across the passage\n## Question 4: Meaning of the family-gathering comparison","[{\"question\":\"Why are the front row seats at a getai show kept empty?\",\"answer\":\"They are reserved for visiting spirits believed to attend the show, so no one sits there or moves in during the evening.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the last paragraph’s final sentence emphasize?\",\"answer\":\"It reframes the empty chairs as a symbol of remembrance and duty, not fear, making sure neither the living nor the dead are forgotten.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the festival’s observance blend different religious traditions?\",\"answer\":\"Historians trace it to Buddhist and Taoist roots, and many families today practice a combined blend, including different explanations for why the seventh month matters.\"}]","The Hungry Ghost Festival - Questions | PDF",1790807719,25]