Penang has gazetted Teong Guan Phor Thor, the Hungry Ghost Festival, as a state heritage item under the Penang State Heritage Enactment 2011. Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the nomination was approved on 8 April and took effect on 25 June 2026. The seventh lunar month itself runs from 13 August to 10 September 2026, so the last neighbourhood altars and getai nights are this week.
Sinar Harian recorded Chow's briefing in George Town on 3 September. More than 200 groups across the state still run the month. Tents for Tai Su Yeah, the King of Hades, and opera or getai stages go up on public land, paid for by neighbourhoods and traders under a local ketua kawasan. The state is the first in Malaysia to list this festival as intangible heritage. A formal gazetting ceremony for the festival and six built sites is set for 10 October 2026.
The last days of the seventh month
myPenang dates the 2026 month as 13 August to 10 September, with the 15th day on 27 August. That 15th night is the peak for roadside tables of roast meats, rice, fruit, cakes, and paper offerings. After that, communities keep feeding wandering spirits until the gates close on the 10th. You will still smell incense on back lanes in George Town, Air Itam, and on the mainland this weekend. Empty front-row chairs at getai are left for unseen guests. Do not sit in them.
The food is not a vegetarian festival. That is Nine Emperor Gods in the ninth lunar month, later in October. Phor Thor tables are generous in the other direction: roast pork, chicken, whole fish, cans of Guinness, packets of biscuits, and stacks of oranges. If you are walking at night, you are looking, not grazing. The plates on the altar are not a buffet.
Bukit Mertajam's 29-foot Da Shi Ye
The Associated Press photographed the 2026 Bukit Mertajam rites in late August. Organisers date the local observance to an 1888 plague. Craftsman Ng Chi Wong, 69, has spent more than four decades building the paper-and-bamboo Da Shi Ye, adding about two inches of height each year. In 2026 the figure stood about 29 feet. Lee, a local organiser, told AP that more than 10,000 people came for the burning this year, with crowds sometimes reaching 20,000. The burn sends the guardian back. It is also the night the food offerings go with him.
myPenang uses the same 29-foot figure as the festival's public image for the island as well as the mainland. George Town's own street altars are smaller. The Bukit Mertajam burn is the one that draws coaches. If you only have one night left before 10 September, that is the mainland stop. Rapid Penang and Grab both reach the town from the island via the bridge. Check the neighbourhood committee's night before you go. The burn time is not a tourist timetable.
What the heritage list already includes
Chow said the festival sits beside food items the state has already listed, among them nasi kandar, pasembor, char kue kak, oh chien, kerabu bihun, and roti benggali. The six new built sites going to the 10 October ceremony are the Penang Hill upper and lower stations and funicular line, Dato Koyah's tomb, Thai Pak Koong Temple on King Street, the Fooi Chew Association building, Loo Pun Hong Temple, and Kwangtung and Tengchow Cemetery No. 1. Tourism and creative economy exco Wong Hon Wai said the seven new items sit on top of 50 heritage listings announced earlier in 2026.
For a food reader the gazette does one useful thing. It treats getai, altar food, and the Tai Su Yeah tent as culture that the state now has to document, not as a seasonal nuisance. That should make it slightly easier to find next year's dates on myPenang instead of chasing Facebook events the week of the 15th night.
Practical Details
- Dates: Seventh lunar month 13 August to 10 September 2026. Heritage ceremony 10 October 2026
- Time: Altars and getai after dusk. The 15th night was 27 August
- Venue: Neighbourhood streets across Penang Island and Seberang Perai. Large-scale rites in Bukit Mertajam
- Nearest transit: George Town heritage core on foot. Bukit Mertajam via Penang Bridge and Rapid Penang or Grab
- Price: Free to watch. Do not take food from altars
- Website: myPenang events and Sinar Harian report
