经查, 佛经里有“盂兰盆经”,说的是佛祖如何指示目连把母亲从恶鬼惩罚中救出来。其中有一段说“佛言:‘善男子!若比丘比丘尼、国王太子、大臣宰相、三公百官、万民庶人,行慈孝者,皆应先为所生现在父母、过去七世父母,于七月十五日,佛欢喜日,僧自恣日,以百味饭食,安盂兰盆中,施十方自恣僧。。。” 英文是这样的:“ Good man, if bhikshus, bhikshunis, kings, crown princes, great ministers, great officials, cabinet members, the hundreds of officers, and the tens of thousands of citizens wish to practice compassionate filial conduct, for the sake of the parents who bore them, as well as for the sake of fathers and mothers of seven lives past, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the day of the buddhas' delight, the day of the Sangha's Pravarana, they all should place hundreds of flavors of foods in the Ullambana basins, and offer them to the Pravarana Sangha of the ten directions.