Ghost Festival

Yesterday was Ghost Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday when some people believe the dead can visit the living. People celebrate by offering food and burning incense and fake money to their ancestors. I guess that duck is a traditional food that ghosts like to eat, so there were duck vendors along the streets and on every corner today when I visited Wuming. The festivities seem to be toned down in Nanning. A Chinese friend of mine told me that children go to bed early on this particular day so the ghosts don't "get" them. I wish I knew a bit more about how people in my region celebrate the holiday and what they truly believe about it, but my research skills are limited by the language barrier! As I walked around and took photos, I couldn't help but feel kind of bad for these little guys. Their legs were tied and they just kind of sat there with their beaks hanging open, quacking now and then. But, I reasoned, I'm no vegetarian myself and besides, ghosts have to eat too, right? Er...

Speaking of duck sacrifice, this scene triggered a memory from and my hometown in Oregon. A couple of Springs ago, a popular downtown park had been overrun with geese and ducks, so much so that it had earned the name "Duck Poop Park." Birth control efforts seemed to have little effect,and the ducks were allowed to be fruitful and multiply without threat from predators. The solution was to round up several hundred geese and dispose of them. Now, how this was actually carried out, I still don't know. I can't separate the fact from what has become legend. Rumor has it, they gathered the ducks into a truck, gassed/clubbed them, and then fed them to people at a homeless shelter. I can't believe this is entirely true. But whatever the case, there were protesters up in arms about animal cruelty. Ghost Festival had me wondering how the duck rights activists would respond to these poor quacking victims.