Food for Ancestors and Deities

Typical of Chinese ancestor worship, when my father passed away in Hong Kong in March 2016, a temporary shrine was set up in the family home (fig.1). A continuous supply of joss sticks and three meals a day populated his shrine.

At certain annual festivals like Chinese New Year (fig. 2), Ching Ming and Hungry Ghost, food and drink offerings form an important part of paying respects to deities and ancestors as well as a means to ask for health and protection for the living. A complete dinner may include a chicken in its entirety including the head, feet, heart and added eggs, pork and a vegetarian dish, tong yuen (sweet round dumplings), fruit, raw leafy and root vegetables, rice wine and tea are offered, in a sequence of importance, to deities such as the Bodhisattva Guan Yin and Taoist Wong Tai Sin, and then to ancestors.

Alongside real food, there are also paper and card crafted versions of affordable everyday foods such as dim-sum, sushi and fruit, (fig. 3, 4, 5), as well as more elaborate and costly dishes,such as roast piglets (fig. 6), bird’s nest and shark’s fin soup. These paper foods for the dead and spirits are burnt as offerings with incense, candles, joss paper (representing spirit money, gold and silver) and paper clothes in various styles, at home (fig. 7),in temples, by gravesides or in public columbaria (fig. 8).

As in life, the importance of Chinese food culture means that there are many paper dishes, ingredients and varieties of meals produced for ancestral worship. In the specialist shops these sit beside luxury brand handbags, watches, laptops and mobile phones. Even cigarettes come with health warnings for the dead! (fig. 9)

The representations of these foods and lifestyle accessories are mass produced, while larger, more elaborate paper and bamboo sculptural forms of afterlife necessities and desirables such as houses, restaurants, cars, bridges, mahjong tables with companion players, servants, and even pets are being made by a small number of craftspeople, often only for funerals.

The woman at the joss paper shop in Sham Sui Po (fig. 10) advised us that when offering real food for the dead, this can be smelt (and by association be tasted) by the many spirits wandering around, potentially diminishing the recipient’s portion. She explained that paper food is received only by the intended, as long as you clearly write the recipient’s name, the date and who it is from on the package, rather like posting a parcel in the real world, ensuring they won’t go hungry.

Typical of Chinese ancestor worship, when my father passed away in Hong Kong in March 2016, a temporary shrine was set up in the family home (fig.1). A continuous supply of joss sticks and three meals a day populated his shrine.

At certain annual festivals like Chinese New Year (fig. 2), Ching Ming and Hungry Ghost, food and drink offerings form an important part of paying respects to deities and ancestors as well as a means to ask for health and protection for the living. A complete dinner may include a chicken in its entirety including the head, feet, heart and added eggs, pork and a vegetarian dish, tong yuen (sweet round dumplings), fruit, raw leafy and root vegetables, rice wine and tea are offered, in a sequence of importance, to deities such as the Bodhisattva Guan Yin and Taoist Wong Tai Sin, and then to ancestors.

Alongside real food, there are also paper and card crafted versions of affordable everyday foods such as dim-sum, sushi and fruit, (fig. 3, 4, 5), as well as more elaborate and costly dishes,such as roast piglets (fig. 6), bird’s nest and shark’s fin soup. These paper foods for the dead and spirits are burnt as offerings with incense, candles, joss paper (representing spirit money, gold and silver) and paper clothes in various styles, at home (fig. 7),in temples, by gravesides or in public columbaria (fig. 8).

As in life, the importance of Chinese food culture means that there are many paper dishes, ingredients and varieties of meals produced for ancestral worship. In the specialist shops these sit beside luxury brand handbags, watches, laptops and mobile phones. Even cigarettes come with health warnings for the dead! (fig. 9)

The representations of these foods and lifestyle accessories are mass produced, while larger, more elaborate paper and bamboo sculptural forms of afterlife necessities and desirables such as houses, restaurants, cars, bridges, mahjong tables with companion players, servants, and even pets are being made by a small number of craftspeople, often only for funerals.

The woman at the joss paper shop in Sham Sui Po (fig. 10) advised us that when offering real food for the dead, this can be smelt (and by association be tasted) by the many spirits wandering around, potentially diminishing the recipient’s portion. She explained that paper food is received only by the intended, as long as you clearly write the recipient’s name, the date and who it is from on the package, rather like posting a parcel in the real world, ensuring they won’t go hungry.