Emily Jung Miller

Eleventh in a series of monthly sketches exploring my Hakka Chinese heritage and personal family history through traditional foods and recipes.

Spirit Festival is China's main celebration of Hungry Ghost Month, a time when the dead walk the earth seeking nourishment. During Spirit Festival, on the night of August's full moon, incense and symbolic money is burned to welcome and honor the dead, real food is offered, and empty places are set at the table for ancestors to join the living.

This is the first year I've celebrated Spirit Festival following these rituals. On my table were three tangelos, three bowls of rice, three cups of Shaoxing wine, spirit money, and Chinese pastries for my Jung ancestors, as well as a slice of homemade blueberry pie and incense burning in a tea tin from my Miller grandparents.

I celebrated a few days early, at home in Oregon, then started this painting from reference photos while in-flight towards my Miller grandparents' home place on Deer Isle, Maine; with a view of the full moon out the airplane window. This year's Spirit Festival occurred during a near-total lunar eclipse. I viewed the lunar eclipse after landing in Boston, then completed this painting a few days later on Deer Isle. The painted moon's tilt and crescent are accurate to my location on the east coast.

Orders placed October 24 - November 22, 2026 will be fulfilled starting on Nov. 24, 2026.