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For traditional Chinese in many countries, August is known as the Month of the Hungry Ghosts. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), a special Ghost Festival is held on the fifteenth night of the seventh lunar month. In Chinese tradition, the thirteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day, and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits, including those of deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. During the Qingming Festival, the living descendants pay homage to their ancestors and on Ghost Day, the deceased visit the living.

Spirits are offered food at a Chinese temple during the Ghost Festival.

On the thirteenth day, the three realms of Heaven, Hell, and the realm of the living are open, and both Taoists and Buddhists perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditional filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths. Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. Elaborate meals would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family. The deceased were treated as if they are still living.

Ancestor worship is what distinguishes Qingming Festival from the Ghost Festival because the former includes paying respects to all deceased, including the same and younger generations, while the latter only includes older generations. Other festivities may include releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies giving directions to the lost ghosts and spirits of the ancestors and other deities.

The Ghost Festival shares some similarities with the predominantly Mexican observance of El Da de los Muertos. Due to its theme of ghosts and spirits, the festival is sometimes known as the Chinese Halloween, though many have debated the difference between the two.