• During the early days when our Chinese forefathers first came to Southeast Asia (Nanyang), associations were based on kinship or locality to support each other in an unfamiliar environment. These associations were known as kongsi meaning “common governance”. Under unfavourable conditions, many died in these foreign lands. Without their families to perform the funeral rituals for them, these deceased were believed to roam as wandering spirits. The surviving forebearers followed the rituals of their homeland, and performed rites for these spirits during the seventh month of the lunar calendar, conducting “salvation rituals” (“作普渡”) to help them on their “journey” in the afterlife. The term “good brothers”, meant these lost souls were part of the kongsi brotherhood.
• Out of respect, and partly as taboo, people started referring to these wandering spirits as “good brothers”, and the rites for them became the “praying for the good brothers”.
• Chinese in Singapore traditionally make offerings to the wandering spirits during the lunar seventh month, to pray for “general well-being”.

On the twelfth day of the seventh lunar month, a thousand people visited the cemetery to make offerings to the “good brothers”. Some temple groups applied for special permission from the authorities to enter into the cordoned areas of the cemetery to make offerings to the wandering spirits. (Shin Min Daily News, 3/9/2017)

孤魂野鬼 (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan), 无主孤魂 (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)