Taiwanese family’s handmade joss paper in demand for Lunar New Year

Name: China’s Omicron outbreaks dampening Lunar New Year travels
Uploaded: 2022-01-26T07:00:15.000Z
Duration: 3 min 8 s
Description: China’s Omicron outbreaks dampening Lunar New Year travels

Also known as ‘spirit money’, joss paper is burned at temples and outside homes to honour deities and ancestors, and pray for prosperity

Very few workshops still make the sacrificial paper by hand, with others moving to automated production

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Reuters

Published: 3:00pm, 26 Jan 2022

Painstakingly, women of retirement age adorn sheet after sheet of yellow joss paper with gold and silver leaf and red paint to satisfy last orders for sacrificial cash offerings ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year festival.

Taiwan’s Chen Kun-huei, 82, is determined to keep alive an ancient tradition of making the “joss paper” by hand even as others have shifted to automated production at factories.

“I will continue making joss paper until I can’t move any more,” said Chen, the third-generation owner of his family’s business in northwestern Taiwan’s Miaoli.

Altogether, the Chens have been making joss paper for around 100 years.

Joss paper, also known as “spirit money”, is one of the most common offerings in Taiwan, burned at temples and outside homes to honour deities and ancestors while praying for many children, prosperity and longevity.

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China’s Omicron outbreaks dampening Lunar New Year travels

It is used during all holidays in Taiwan – Chen says there is only one month of downtime in a year – with the most offerings made during Lunar New Year and the “ghost month”, or the seventh month of the lunar calendar.