[Mindless Rambling 11]

Since today is the 15th of the seventh month in the Chinese calendar (Its lunisolar btw, on contrary to lunar as most believed), I shall shared a bit on the culture on burning paper money.

Many young Chinese and friends from other races may feel a bit annoyed, by the burning practice by the Chinese, citing reasons like pollution and wasting. However, the rationale for burn...ing paper, is to cut down on wastage and pollution initially. During Song dynasty, burning paper money was widely encouraged by the government as people at that time bury real stuff, burn real (Want to give an iphone, they will really burn or bury a real iphone). Paper-made luxury objects were introduced as an alternative to cut down on these wastage. And since they are paper-made, we can offer more "luxurious" commodities since we are not buying real stuff and burn or bury them. 700 to 1000 years have pass and burning paper money has become the norm for traditional Chinese.

But why bother, burning at least twice each month. The following is a quick (hopefully) rundown on the reason why:

In Ancient time (Referring to Zhou, Pre-Qin era), Chinese believed that when a person died, his body returns to the earth, but their soul carry on living with the living (Concept of Hell is introduced by Buddhism which comes at a much later date during Han dynasty). Assumed that the one who passed is your family member, you won't want to leave it wandering right? Thus, the soul or sprit will be invited to live with the family (though sets of ritual) and their spirit will joined with their ancestors (which are yours by the way) in the Spirit Tablet(神主牌). After they are invited, they will living with us, sharing their wisdom with us, providing guidance just like when they are alive (If you have enough status, you can built an ancestor shrine to keep their tablets. If not, they will be place facing the door at our home). Since everything should be as per normal, simply offerings are made everyday, like giving portion of our breakfast, lunch ect. .

If you of the class of 士, an big offering ceremony (Where meat can be finally eaten. Meat is a rare commodity in the past） will be conducted on the first or the fifteen day every month. If your class is 大夫(a rank higher), it will be the first and the fifteen every month. For a commoner, we can only do it during festivals like Chinese New Year. The official name of this offering is known as 打牙祭. Though customs changes , the spirit of making offering during this to two every month remains.

Since Spirits of those passed returned to live their family, where does wandering ghost comes about? Simple, imagine your son and daughter don't want you and kick you out of the family. This is how wandering ghost comes about. Of course I am simplifying things to make it more relatable. In actual fact, most these soul are lost because the bloodline of the family has ended and there is no one is offering any shelter. For many cases, its war and epidemic that disrupted proper rituals to be conducted for them to find their resting place. Thus, they are lost in sense that they do not have a proper place to live. When Buddhism spread in China, customs merged and developed through time, and today, we have our ghost festival during the seventh month. Although it seems that we are make offering to them to prevent a "ghost" mayhem, the main concept of this offering its the spirit of compassion where we provide food, clothing, house and entertainment for the lost and wandering ones.

As for the importance of offering to our ancestor and the importance of rituals(we call them 禮. As opposed to politeness, it a complex concept), I will leave it for the next rambling.