Ghost Month Festival Celebrated In Keelung, Taiwan

Celebrating the mid-summer Chinese Ghost Month Festival, paper houses burn at sea for offerings for the departed’s return home off Keelung, northern Taiwan, late Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012. Fourteen days into the seventh month of the lunar calendar, starting on Aug. 31 in 2012, marks the traditional Chinese Ghost Month where the gates of the underworld are opened and spirits of the deceased are set free to roam the world of the living. The month long festivities are aimed to please the roaming spirits.

Families watch parades of light and costumes during the Chinese ghost month in Keelung, northern Taiwan, late Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012.

A paper house is carried to the sea off Keelung, northern Taiwan, late Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012, to help guide wandering spirits on the water to land.

Musicians perform during the Chinese ghost month celebrations in Keelung, northern Taiwan, late Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012. <AP/NEWSis>

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