Li Chi-tse, an amateur cultural historian, feels that Taiwan's pudu rites are performed with special fervor to ritually calm the sense of uncertainty that accompanied the injuries and deaths of the early settlers.
中元普渡的意義，除了民俗慶典的熱鬧氣氛，也是緬懷先民墾殖歷史的最佳時機。民間文史工作者李疾則認為，台灣的中元普渡特別熱烈「狂野」，可以說是民眾透過祭儀，來安撫開墾時那種死傷眾多的不確定性。