Hungry Ghost Festival in San Francisco: Chinatown’s Ghost Festival

San Francisco’s Hungry Ghost Festival is a free, family-friendly evening festival in Chinatown run by the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. It has a giant paper Ghost King parade, Cantonese opera, live music, altars and art. It happens once a year in late summer, during the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The 2026 festival was on Saturday, September 5, 2026. The 2027 date has not been announced yet.

When Is the Hungry Ghost Festival in San Francisco?

The Chinese Culture Center (CCC) holds it on a Saturday during the seventh lunar month, the “ghost month.” That month falls in August or September on our calendar, so the date moves every year. Here is every San Francisco edition so far:

The traditional Ghost Festival day, the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, falls on Monday, August 16, 2027, and the ghost month that year runs through August. San Francisco’s festival has always been on a Saturday in that month, but the exact day is the CCC’s call, so don’t book around a guessed date.

Chinese Culture Center: festivals · CCC: the 2024 festival

What Is the Hungry Ghost Festival?

In Chinese tradition, the seventh lunar month is when the line between the living and the spirit world gets thin. “Hungry ghosts” (spirits who were forgotten, or who died with a grievance) are said to wander among the living. People leave them food and offerings, burn paper offerings and put on performances to comfort them. The Taoist name for the day is the Zhongyuan Festival and the Buddhist name is the Yulan (Yulanpen) Festival. It’s marked across the Chinese diaspora, from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Singapore and Malaysia.

Chinese Americans in California have kept the tradition since the mid-1800s. Organizers say it gave comfort to people dealing with loss, from wrongful deaths to the long separations of immigration. Many of the temples that held these rituals closed after the 1906 earthquake. The CCC brought the festival back to Chinatown in 2023, growing it out of the Chinatown Music Festival it had run in Portsmouth Square for more than ten years. Organizers call it the only citywide Hungry Ghost Festival in the US.

What Happens at the Festival

• The Ghost King parade. The festival opens with a procession through Chinatown led by the Ghost King, a paper figure more than 14 feet tall made by a traditional paper-craft master in Hong Kong. Visitors have been invited to join in costume or with props.
• Stage shows. Expect a mix: traditional Cantonese opera next to DJs, taiko, dance groups, punk and mariachi. The CCC brings in artists from many cultures because, as curator Hoi Leung puts it, almost every community has its own restless spirits.
• Altars and art. Community altars (the Lotus Taoist Institute and the Marigold Project, which also runs Día de los Muertos altars, have both taken part) and outdoor art installations, some made by artists from Hong Kong.
• Market and food. Pop-up vendors and Chinatown’s own restaurants and bakeries all around the festival blocks.

Each year has a theme: “Downpour, Uproar!” in 2024 was about Chinatown’s recovery after the pandemic, and “Demons of Our Times” in 2025 was about facing anger, grief and sorrow together.

Is It Good for Kids?

• Yes, mostly. The CCC bills it as free and family-friendly, and in 2024 there was a kids’ play area at Rose Pak station. The Ghost King is big and a little spooky, which most kids love; very young children may want to watch the parade from a distance.
• It’s about the dead, gently. It’s a good way to talk with kids about remembering family who have died. It’s more like Día de los Muertos than Halloween: colorful and lively, not gory.
• Altar manners. Treat the altars and offerings like a memorial: look, read and take photos, but don’t touch or take the food left out.
• Crowds and timing. The parade is the busiest moment. Arrive a little before the start time, pick a spot along the route, and keep a meeting point in case you get separated.

Getting There

Take Muni. Organizers recommend the Central Subway (T Third line) to Chinatown–Rose Pak station at Stockton and Washington, a short walk from Portsmouth Square and Grant Avenue. Everyone 18 and under rides Muni free. Chinatown parking is limited, so Muni is the easier way in.

More Ghost Stories and Fall Traditions in San Francisco

If the Hungry Ghost Festival is the city’s real ghost tradition, our San Francisco local legends guide covers the made-up ones: the White Lady of Stow Lake, the Sutro Baths ghosts and the Chinatown tunnels that never were. For this fall, see Halloween in San Francisco for families (including the Chinatown Halloween Festival on Waverly Place) and our Día de los Muertos guide. Planning ahead for winter? The Chinese New Year Parade is on February 20, 2027.

Sources

• Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco: Hungry Ghost Festival 2024 (date, times, places, Ghost King, altars, history)
• Chinese Culture Center: festivals list (editions 2023–2025)
• SF Arts: 2025 Hungry Ghost Festival (date, time, performers)
• 7×7: Chinatown’s Hungry Ghost Festival returns (2025 locations, theme, free admission)
• San Francisco Examiner: SF Chinatown to heal restless spirits at Ghost Festival (2024 layout, Rose Pak station, origins)
• NBC Bay Area: the first Hungry Ghost Festival, 2023
• The Voice of San Francisco: Out and about, Sept. 3–9, 2026 (2026 date, time, location)
• SF Funcheap: SF Chinatown’s Hungry Ghost Festival 2026 (2026 date, free)
• Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan and Yulan names; 2027 date)
• SFMTA: Free Muni for youth

Checked on 9 October 2026 against the Chinese Culture Center’s own pages and the listings above. The 2027 date will be added here once it’s announced.