Comments, we get 中文 comments.

If I had to do it again, I wouldn't have taken any classes this quarter. There was a ton of follow up work to do from my trip, there's the whole 'transition the library to a learning commons model' task that's been assigned to me, and I have been desperately trying to maintain at least enough language skill to not waste my partner's time each week.

So I never got around to translating several comments on the blog from the summer. I wanted to do this (a) for my personal edification; (b) for the benefit of my Engish-only readers; (c) so that I knew what they were saying before anyone else did. While some of the comments were signed by people I know, a couple turned out to be spam.

So, in response to this post, my friend Hui said:

每年农历七月十五日为“盂兰盆节”(佛教），也称“中元节”（道教），有些地方俗称“鬼节”、“施孤”，又称亡人节、七月半。

Which means: Every July 15 (on the lunar calendar) there is the Buddhist 'yulanpen' festival (haven't been able to some up with a good English name for that. Maybe 'potted orchids?'), also called the mid-summer festival (by the daoists). In some places it's commonly called the 'gods festival.,' 'carry the orphan,' and 'the mid-July festival of the dead.

I like that 'the dead' (亡人) is literally 'dead person.' Does that mean that the Chinese word for zombie is 没忘人？