9 bizarre luxury offerings people will burn to honour ancestors during Chung Yeung Festival

Oct 16 , 2018

Handbag and shoe designer brands are just some of the paper replica offerings that can be burned during the Chinese Chung Yeung Festival as families honour their ancestors. Photos: Lisa Cam

A computer tablet for Sudoku-lovers, a Hermès handbag and shoes, a ‘Bardeaux’ red wine – these are among some of the replica offerings that will go up in smoke as families remember their dead

It’s Chung Yeung Festival on October 17 – the ninth day of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar calendar – and in Hong Kong as well as across many other parts of Asia, families will as usual be congregating at cemeteries to engage in age-old practices of ancestor worship.

These practices include making gift offerings to ancestors by burning paper replicas of objects that they loved in life – and, it is assumed, continue to do so in the afterworld.

True to the Hong Kong spirit of enterprise, shops that specialise in selling paper replicas have kept up with the times and created some amazing objects which, when burned, are believed to provide various creature comforts to the dead.

A package – containing a set of paper replicas such as clothes and money – can range in price from HK$50 (about US$6) to HK$120, but individual items can also be chosen, costing from HK$10 to more than HK$500.

Here are the top nine items – all made from combustible paper – which will keep up the spirits of even the most fastidious of ancestors.

1. Gold bars

Boxes of paper gold bars on sale in a shop, which will be burned as an offering to ancestors to ensure they will always remain wealthy – even after death. Photo: Lisa Cam

Cardboard gold bars will ensure that any spirit in the afterworld will not fall victim to inflation and will always be flush with cash.

2. Gourmet coffee maker