A hungry ghost is a kind of ghost associated with hunger common to many religions. Reputed ghost of a monk. ... Hunger is applied literally to the need or craving for food; it can also be applied metaphorically to cravings of other sorts. ...

In Judeo-Christian theology, for example, the Book of Enoch (an apocryphal book of the Bible whose complete version has only recently been discovered as a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls) describes the fall of the Watchers and the demons who might be the fallen angels (Watchers) themselves, or the offspring of the union of the Watchers and mankind. These creatures are said to wander the world in the form of evil spirits -- endlessly yearning for food though they have no mouths to eat -- endlessly thirsty though they cannot drink. Endlessly seeking these things from the living, the evil spirits seek to possess weak-willed men and women to dispossess their spirits and to take over their bodies so as to partake of food and drink. On the positive side, in Judaic tradition, the good but obviously thirsty spirit of Elijah, the prophet, visits every Jewish house during Passover to sample the wine. At every Passover Seder, a Jewish family will put out an extra glass of wine meant to satisfy Elijah. Judeo-Christian tradition (also spelled Judaeo-Christian) is the body of concepts and values held in common by Christianity and Judaism. ... Theology is literally rational discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, rational discourse). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics. ... The Book of Enoch is a pseudepigraphal apocryphal work attributed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. ... In Judeo-Christian theology, the word apocrypha (Greek απόκρυφα, neuter plural of απόκρυφος, hidden) refers to texts that are not considered canonical, part of the Bible, but are of roughly similar style and age as the accepted Scriptures. ... The Bible (From Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, plural of βιβλιον, biblion, book, originally a diminutive of βιβλος, biblos, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos, meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this writing material), is a word applied to sacred scriptures. ... Fragments of the scrolls on display at the Archeological Museum, Amman The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of about 850 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, which were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran, near the ruins of the anceint... According to Jewish folklore, the Watchers or Grigori are a superior order of angels whose proper place is either second or fifth heaven. ... In Christian contexts, demons such as Satan are often depicted in a grotesque fashion. ... In Christian mythology, a fallen angel is an angel exiled or banished from Heaven after not obeying Gods mandate or rebelling against Him. ... In biology, offspring are the product of reproduction, a new organism produced by one or more parents. ... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ... This article is about the paranormal. ... The mouth, also known as the buccal cavity or the oral cavity, is the opening through which an animal or human takes in food. ... The word drink is primarily a verb, meaning to ingest liquids, see Drinking. ... Possession is having some degree of control over something else. ... Good. ... Elijah (אֱלִיָּהוּ Whose/my God is the Lord, Standard Hebrew Eliyyáhu, Tiberian Hebrew ʾĔliyyāhû), also Elias (NT Greek Ἠλίας), is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. ... In numerous religions, including Abrahamic religions, Jah religions, Sikhism, and many forms of Paganism, a prophet is an intermediary with a deity, particularly someone who speaks for the deity or interprets the deitys will or mind. ... The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Passover, also known as Pesach or Pesah (פסח pesaḥ), is a Jewish holiday (lasting seven days in Israel and among some liberal Diaspora Jews, and eight days among other Diaspora Jews) that commemorates the exodus and freedom of the Israelites from Egypt; it is also observed by some Christians to... A glass of white wine This article is about the beverage. ... The Seder (pronounced say-der, meaning order in Hebrew) is a special Jewish ceremonial dinner revolving around the story of Exodus. ...

In the Roman religion, hungry ghosts of a family's ancestors figured in the festival of Lemuria; it was the duty of the pater familias to appease the larvæ of his ancestors with an offering of beans. The Balkan tradition of the vampire is another malevolent sort of undead revenant, a corpse supernaturally animated which seeks to feed on the blood of the living. Ancient Roman religion was a combination of several different practices and sets of beliefs. ... In Roman religion, the Feast of the Lemures, called the Lemuralia or Lemuria was a feast during which the ancient Romans performed rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearful ghosts of the dead from their homes. ... The pater familias was the eldest or ranking male in a Roman household. ... Larvae are the plural of larva, juvenile form of animals with indirect development. ... Green beans Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae) used for food or feed. ... The Balkans is the historic and geographic name used to describe southeastern Europe (see the Definitions and boundaries section below). ... Count Orlok from Nosferatu A vampire is a mythical or folkloric creature said to subsist on human and/or animal blood often having magical powers and the ability to transform. ... Undead is a collective name for all types of corporeal and non-corporeal entities who were once alive in the normal sense, died, and then continued to exist in the world of the living, usually as a ghost or animated corpse. ... The supernatural refers to conscious magical, religious or unknown forces that cannot ordinarily be perceived except through their effects. ...

In Hindu tradition, much as described in the Book of Enoch, hungry ghosts are spirit-beings driven by the passionate objects of their desire. Very detailed information about ghosts is given in Garuda Purana. This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... A tradition is a story or a custom that is memorized and passed down from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system. ... In psychology and common terminology, emotion is the language of a persons internal state of being, normally based in or tied to their internal (physical) and external (social) sensory feeling. ... Desire can refer to preference, on which microeconomic theory is based a thought that leads to an action a concept of lack in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory (for now, refer to the Oedipus complex) the concept of tanha in Buddhist psychology, as described in the Four Noble Truths. ...

The same understanding has Buddhism, where Hungry Ghosts (pretas) have their own realm in the Wheel of Life and are depicted as teardrop shaped with bloated stomachs and necks too thin to pass food such that attempting to eat is also incredibly painful. This is a metaphor for people futilely attempting to fulfill their illusory physical desires. Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... The Wheel of Life, a Buddhist painting from Bhutan In the dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism), the wheel of life, wheel of dharma, wheel of law, dharmachakra, or wheel of existence is a mandala or symbolic representation of samsara, the continuous cycle of birth, life, death. ...

Hungry ghosts also appear in Chinese ancestor worship. Some Chinese believe that the ghosts of their ancestors return to their houses at a certain time of the year, hungry and ready to eat. A festival is held to honor the hungry ancestor ghosts and food and drink is put out to satisfy their needs. Ancestor worship, also ancestor veneration, is a religious practice based on the belief that ones ancestors possess supernatural powers. ... A festival or fest is an event, usually staged by a local community, which centers on some theme, sometimes on some unique aspect of the community. ...

When Buddhism entered China, it encountered stiff opposition from the Confucian adherents to ancestor worship. Under these pressures, ancestor worship was combined with the Hindu/Buddhist concept of the hungry ghost. Eventually, the Hungry Ghost Festival became an important part of Chinese Buddhist life. Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā The School of the Scholars), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical, religious and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. ... This article is about the Chinese Ghost Festival. ...

In Japanese Buddhism, two such creatures exist: the gaki and the jikininki. Gaki (餓鬼) are the spirits of jealous or greedy people who, as punishment for their mortal vices, have been cursed with an insatiable hunger for a particular substance or object. Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as human corpses or feces, though in more recent legends, it may be virtually anything, no matter how bizarre. Jikininki ("man-eating ghosts") are the spirits of greedy, selfish or impious individuals who are cursed after death to seek out and eat human corpses. They do this at night, scavenging for newly dead bodies and food offerings left for the dead. They sometimes also loot the corpses they eat for valuables, which they use to bribe local officials to leave them in peace. Nevertheless, jikininki lament their condition and hate their repugnant cravings for dead human flesh. Japanese Buddhist priest c. ... In Japanese Buddhism, Gaki (餓鬼, hungry ghosts) are the spirits of jealous or greedy people who, as punishment for their mortal vices, have been cursed with an insatiable hunger for a particular substance or object. ... In Japanese Buddhism, Jikininki (man-eating ghosts) are the spirits of greedy, selfish or impious individuals who are cursed after death to seek out and eat human corpses. ... A spirit or spiritual being is a non-corporeal entity found in many religions and belief systems throughout the world. ... Jealousy is an emotion experienced by one who perceives that another person is giving something that s/he wants (typically attention, love, or affection) to a third party. ... Greed is a desire to obtain more money or material possessions or bodily satisfaction than one is considered to need. ... With regard to living things, a body is the integral physical material of an individual, and contrasts with soul, personality and behavior. ... Feces (also spelled faeces in British English, or fæces) are semi-solid waste products from the digestive tract expelled through the anus (or cloaca) during defecation. ... Selfishness is a primary or sole concern with ones own welfare. ... Impiety is a lack of proper concern for the obligations owed to cult in its proper sense. ...

See also: oral fixation. An oral fixation (also oral craving) is a fixation in the oral stage of development and manifested by an obsession with stimulating the mouth (oral), first described by Freud. ...

External links

• Garuda Purana excerpts (http://veda.harekrsna.cz/encyclopedia/garuda-purana.htm)
• Samsara - Ghosts (http://veda.harekrsna.cz/planetarium/index.htm#15)