Each year traditional Chinese religionists believe that spirits in the underworld are released up to where the rest of us live.  It's very important to keep these ghosts happy & to give them incentives to go back where they came from & feeling well taken care of at the end of the month.  So, every year during the month-long Hungry Ghost Festival there are widespread Chinese opera performances, usually performed by actors from Bangkok, in a dialect that only of a few of the elderly fully understand.  Attendance varies, but that doesn't matter as it's ultimately to keep the ghosts entertained.  The climax is at the end of the month when money from hell is generously provided & burned up with a paper idol to encourage the ghosts to return to the only place where the money is honored.  Trustees of the local temple--chosen every year--sculp the ashes from the fire into decrotive pots that they then take home & put on the family's altar.  Finally, the opera gear is crated up & loaded on the truck back to Bangkok.