I was out to dinner with friends in Dongguan this evening when we saw flames flickering at the end of a long alley that runs behind a shopping mall.
The dozen or so elderly women overseeing the ritual explained that the area behind the mall is actually the site of their now-demolished village. And, for as long as these women could remember, women from their village have been burning ghost money, and making food offerings (in the background, behind the incense sticks), to honor the village’s ancestors, twice per lunar year. Tonight’s burning was scheduled long before the earthquake, but, in memory of those killed in the ongoing tragedy, it was made to burn much brighter.
A few more photos after the jump.
Why you tag this religion??? Ghost money is not religion! Every Chinese do.
They told me that they are Buddhists.
The only other place I have seen this ritual was at the “jade budda temple”, so I assumed it was also a buddhist tradition.