There is saying of dead souls will return home to visit their family between 11pm to 3am, on the 7th day after they passed on. As these are spread thru words of mouth, no one is able to ascertain it credibility.

For Cantonese Taoism, we believed that the “Return Soul Night” may not be on the 7th day after they passed on. There is a formula inherited from the past to calculate the “return soul night”. It will use the lunar date of the day the deceased passed on, and based on the calculation, the “return souls” not only return in the night, but sometimes also in the day.

There is another saying that there are 2 nights in the returning soul night. The first night is said to be the soul can return home on its own (思归 – a self-return night to visit the family). Family members will prepare the favorite dishes of the return soul so that he/she can enjoy them. It was said that the return soul will stay till dawn before going back to the netherworld. The second night, the soul will be accompanied by the ‘Bull head & Horse face’ to return home (正归 – an official return night to visit the family). Same as the first night, family members will prepare favorite dishes for the return soul and at the same time will also prepare boiled eggs, plain rice and rice wine for the 2 escort. (it was said that ‘Bull head & Horse face” love these offerings). The eggs will be soaked in the wine overnight before offering. The purpose of this is to try to make the ‘Bull head & Horse face’ fall asleep after eating the eggs and plain rice so that the return soul can stay longer till dawn.

During the 2 return soul nights, family members are to avoid the setup area before the return of the soul. This is to avoid disturbing the return soul from having their prepared meal. This is also a kind of respect to the soul.

回魂夜

有一种说法是说当一个人去世后，亡魂会在去世后的第7天晚上的11点到凌晨3点之间回家探望他们的家人。称“回魂夜”。然而，由于这些说法是通

过口传，信徒无法确定它的可信度。

对于广东道教而言，“回魂夜”不一定是在亡者去世后的第7天。回魂夜是个从以前延续自今的公式计算出来的。公式是采用亡者的农历死亡日期时间，广东简称“日脚”计算而出。这公式能算出亡者的魂高，回魂日，时间和方位。所以有些“回魂”的时间不只是在夜间返回，有时也会在白天返回。

也有一种说法是回魂夜有2个晚上。据说第一个晚上是亡魂可以自己回家，称“思归”。家人会为亡魂准备他们去世前最喜欢的菜肴，以便亡魂可以享受。回归的亡魂会一直待到黎明才回到地狱世界。第二个晚上是真正的回归之夜，称“正归”。这次是“牛头马面”护送着亡魂回归的。与第一晚相同，家人会为亡魂准备他们最喜欢的菜肴，同时也为两位护送使者准备煮熟的鸡蛋，白米饭和米酒。 （据说’牛头马面’最喜欢这些祭品）。在供奉之前，家人会把鸡蛋浸在米酒中浸泡过夜。目的是试着让 “牛头马面” 饱餐过后入睡，这样回归的亡魂可以待到更长的时间或直到天亮。

在亡魂回归之夜，家人应该避免逗留在拜祭之处。这是为了让回归亡魂好好的享用加入为他们准备好的菜肴。这也是对亡魂的一种尊重。