Ghost Month 2026 Starts

It’s been more than a week of almost non-stop rains.  Is this Nature’s way of ushering in Ghost Month 2026? That officially starts today as the lunar cycle begins. 

I wasn’t always as superstitious. Come to think of it, we had no idea of Ghost month growing up.  It started showing up in our collective consciousness probably only around 15 years back. 

Eventually, it became a ‘thing’ to be aware of it. Don’t start big projects. No major purchases. Don't travel! I became acutely aware of this especially around 2019, when I traveled to Zambales during Ghost Month. And one of the tires blew out. I started to believe since.

I even light up incense sticks every day for the whole month. And yes, I avoid signing contracts and purchasing big-ticket items, and even major travel. Better safe than sorry as they say. 

But as a Catholic, I am not sure I should be 'observing' Ghost Month.

I recently organized a 'prayer huddle', actually an online prayer meet with a couple of other gay Catholic men. It is the first 'meet-up' of an FB group I started years back: Pray Like Us (PLU for short, gets? hehe)  The vision is that this group becomes a safe space for gay Catholic men seeking to deepen their faith and spirituality. Now that I have the time, I decided to pursue setting this up, especially after meeting a Catholic Priest who was willing to be our Spiritual director. 

The first meeting was last August 10. For discussion, I suggested the topic Superstition and Catholic faith, also borne out of the August 9 Gospel reading (the disciples thought they were seeing a ghost when they saw Jesus walking on water towards them). 

My key take-away after the one-hour huddle: I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss 'superstition' as anti-faith. Superstition is deeply rooted in culture. And perhaps, Catholic faith interweaves itself into culture, including superstition, if only to make it more accessible to people. The better question would be: whether these beliefs, these traditions allow me to be closer to people, and to God. The greater 'sin' would be blindly following these at the expense of my relationship with God and His people. 

Hence, I don't think it would be any mortal sin to continue to be aware of 'Ghost Month', and to be cautious and careful. If any, I pray harder knowing that Jesus is greater than any ghost or misfortune. I can even pay (pray?) it forward by doing acts of charity.  So maybe it's not so bad.  

And the Lord won't mind. :-)