Holidays and event celebrated in July, August, September | Penang's festival

Birthday of Chor So Kong

Chor So Kong was a Tang dynasty monk who specialized in exorcism and healing. His birthday falls on the 6th day of the sixth moon of the lunar calendar. In the afternoons and evenings, Chinese opera will be staged before the Snake Temple in Sungai Kluang. Devotees offer eggs to the temple snakes.

Birthday of the Goddess of Mercy

Here Her birthday is celebrated for a second time by the Chinese on the 19th day of the sixth moon.

Hungry Ghosts

Hungry Ghost also known as Phor Thor festival is a month long celebration. According to the Chinese folk belief, the first day of the seven moon is when the gates of hell open to let out the ghost to wander among the living. Prayers, incense, hell money, and food are offered to appease these ghosts. Private enterprise also sponsors the staging of Chinese street opera and puppet theater, which can be seen in different neighborhoods most nights of the month.

Double Sevens

The legend tells of the Weaver, a heavenly maiden and one of the seven sisters, who falls in love with a mortal,the Cowherd. Due to circumstances, they cannot be together and meet only once a year across the Milky Way on this night. Unmarried women make offerings to Seven Sisters on the eve of the double seven on the 7th day of the seventh moon of the lunar calendar.

Chong Yuen Ti Kuan Ta Ti

A Taoist deity, receives offerings that are made to cleanse oneself of past sins. Simultaneously, paper and food offerings are also made to Tai Su Yah, who rules the underworld, with his two wardens., Tua Pek, who is seen with chain, and Jee Pek, who is seen with a fan. Sheds are constructed by the roadside to house paper representations of these deities which are made in the shops along Carnavon Street and elsewhere. This observance is also called Chit Guek Puah, meaning mid-seventh month. The Cantonese observe it on the 14th day and the Hokkiens on the 15th day of the moon.

Birthday of Tai Sui

On the 19th day of the seventh moon, those people who feel vindictive can cut out paper siau ren (evil men), hang them upside down at the altar of Tai Sui, and beat them with their slippers while pronouncing the hated person's name along with a string of curses.

Mooncake Festival

This festival commemorates the overthrow of the Mongols, when the insurgent revolutionary leaders, by way of smuggling secret messages in mooncakes, called the people to revolt. It is celebrated by the Chinese on the 15th day of the eight lunar moon. Children carry paper lanterns through the streets on this full moon night. Click here for full story.

Birthday of Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak is the founder of Sikhism. Celebrations here is added with non-stop reading of the Granth Sahib for 48 hours. Devotional songs and meals for the masses are held at the Diamond Jubilee Sikh Gudwara, Brick Kiln Road, and other Sikh temples.

The Masi Maham Festival

This festival will take place at the Sri Singamuga Kaliaman Temple, Teluk Bahang (right next to the Mutiara Beach Hotel). During the day, there is a kavadi procession to the temple. Hundreds of Hindus will gather on the open beach in the afternoon to watch young boys and girls perform dances with sticks. They are accompanied by musicians who set the rhythm.When the sun sets, the statue of the Goddess Kali is placed on a raft is pulled out by a boat and stays out at sea for about an hour. Fireworks are shot into the night sky. On its return, the raft is thronged by the waiting crowds, who reach out to receive holy ash.

More celebrative events, public holidays and festival in Penang | Visit Malaysia