spirit money
Burned for ancestors
Spirit money is paper currency or paper replicas of valuables burned as offerings to deceased ancestors in Chinese and other East Asian traditions.
The practice sends wealth to the afterlife, providing for the dead's needs in the spirit world.
Spirit money ranges from simple joss paper to elaborate reproductions of modern banknotes, credit cards, and luxury goods: The family burned spirit money at the grave during the Qingming Festival.
- ancestral ritesCeremonies honoring forebears
- hungry ghostsSpirits tormented by unquenchable desire
- ancestor venerationReligious devotion to lineage
- ancestral worshipReligious honoring of forebears
- folding techniquesWays to bend materials flat
tomb sweeping · joss paper · paper offerings · underworld · paper houses · gold ingots · silver ingots · joss sticks · funerary rites · funeral customs · ancestral shrines · traditional rituals · filial piety · ancestral tombs · death anniversary · Chinese festivals · yin-yang · karmic balance
- Taiwanese culturebubble tea, night markets, temple festivals, boba, stinky tofu
- Chinese folk religionfolk religion, folk beliefs, ancestral worship, Chinese temples, joss sticks
- Chinese spiritualityConfucianism, Taoism, Daoism, folk religion, feng shui
- Taiwan beliefsJade Emperor, Taoism, folk religion, temple fair, joss paper
- tomb artifactscanopic jars, burial goods, sarcophagi, coffins, mummy wrappings
- Ghost Festivalhungry ghosts, ghost month, joss paper, food offerings, fruit offerings
spirit moneylegal tender
Officially recognized payment medium
gold · precious metals · bullion · silver · specie
spirit, spirits, spirited, spiritual, spiritually, spirituality, dispirit, dispirited, money