ABSTRACT
This chapter uses local celebrations during the lunar seventh month (Zhongyuan 中元 or the Ghost Festival) to exemplify the basic patterns, ritual spaces, and structures of seasonal festivals through which villagers communicate with the yin world every year. In graveyards and domestic altars in the main hall of every household, people regularly communicate with the yin world through bai, offering incense and hosting banquets on ritual and festival occasions, experiencing the continuities and differences of the yin world that is both near and far. These annual practices fundamentally train the bodies of villagers to bai properly, and cultivate their worldview of dwelling in a universe consisting of both yin and yang worlds.
