How Much Ancestor Money Should I Burn
Hell Money
Alex Adair, Joanne Choi, Ceasor Dennis, Clara Lin, Lambert Yuen
"May I run into ane of those?" I asked
There's always a item scent of called-for incense when one walks through the gates of a Buddhist temple. The smoke looms effectually in a mist-similar grade. The air is difficult to breathe and some of the people'south eyes fire from the ashes around. The true-blue keep to add more than to the already huge amount of incense of all shapes and sizes—the footling flames on the peak of the incense glows through the misty smoke. Before these incense lays the deities, to whom some ask for divine guidance for their cause.
Today, a girl was called-for something else in the temple. I looked down at what she was burning—some form of paper coin? It appeared and so. She was dropping them into the flames one past one. I had seen something similar this before—somewhere in a Chinese moving-picture show, a man was dropping paper money in a makeshift grill for his brother who had died. Curiously, I approached the daughter.
"Of form," the woman replied.
I looked at what the newspaper money said. "Hell coin," it read on the bottom.
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The use of spirit money (also known equally hell money or heaven coin) in observing different rituals is deeply rooted in Asian culture. Archaeological show of "imitation/spirit money" tin can be seen as far back as circa 1000 B.C. Imitations of money in the grade of stones and basic (along with cowrie shells) were plant in tombs. In the Spring and Fall periods, archaeologists have constitute evidence of imitation metal money. The simulated metallic money was sparse and delicate, made of atomic number 82 and bronze. There were also imitations in clay of gold plaques. Initially, archaeologists believed that imitations were for the poor; however, that conventionalities inverse when they discovered simulated money in the tombs of the wealthy
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"What is Hell Money?" I asked.
"It's sky coin. My dad got mad at me for calling it hell money. Heaven Coin is but money you burn down and then the person can spend it in the afterlife. Information technology's regular-shaped bills with faces on them. They smell like incense, and we burn them." the girl said. She continued tossing them into the flames. We connected talking.
"Y'all know any history most Hell Money?" I asked
"I'chiliad not really certain about the history other than that I retrieve people used to really burn real money instead of what they fire today which is just faux or somewhat equally just symbolic money. I have no clue; all I know is that it has been around for a long time."
"Then where did y'all go this money to burn?"
"I got it from a mortuary or temple identify. Nosotros bought it from them…You can as well buy them at an Asian supermarket."
"How much would y'all say heaven money is worth to y'all or your family?"
The girl thought information technology over. "It's really hard to put a value to it," she began, "I personally don't believe in heaven money and all the other stuff that goes along with it, simply I know it meant a lot to my Grandma, so I was mainly doing it for her and other members of my family. All I know is that my mom fabricated me practice it, and she told me the money floated up to heaven to grandma to employ to live. I merely know that this kind of stuff tin mean a lot to some people, and then when I do information technology, I just try to recollect that." She was not alone. I talked to three other people her age—they agreed that it was part of tradition and not of religious identity—out of respect for their elders rather than a serious belief that people would go to the afterlife.
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Spirit money itself has many different uses; however, it is used generally as a symbol of transformation, increase in reproduction, and payment of spiritual debts. The notes used as "money" are transformed to spirit money when they are used as symbolic offerings to ghosts, gods, and ancestors. The burning of spirit coin allows for information technology to be transferred to ghosts, gods, and ancestors to exist used as real currency in the other world. Furthermore, spirit money serves a vital part in clan with the offering of food to some ghosts, gods, and ancestors. The offer of food serves to bring our ancestors and other beings in the other world closer to us. It serves as a bonding tool to bring both worlds together. This tin can be seen in cultures all around the earth where feasts, dinners, and other social events use money to bring the community together. Spirit money on the other manus serves to split up the living earth from the world of ghosts, gods, and ancestors. Information technology is non natural to take both of these worlds in close connection with each other. The employ of spirit coin is very similar to how we apply money in our social club today. Information technology is generally used as a tool to maintain a certain level of altitude between two parties during a transaction. The concepts of food and coin correlate directly to the offerings to ghosts, gods, and ancestors. Nosotros use nutrient to bring them close to usa and coin to separate them from us.
--- Spirit money is used in many differing activities. For example, the critical role of spirit money is to repay the debts of our ancestors. The spirit of the antecedent must obtain a torso and a fate to pursue information technology karmic course. Nonetheless, in order for it to practice so, information technology must pay its mystical debt that accumulates over a person's life. According to McCreery, "It is, however, the burning of large quantities of spirit money that makes the difference in how severely a person is punished when, having died; he once over again faces the courts of Hell. This rationale explains why people burn such big amounts of spirit money at funerals, for no i always complete succeeds in repaying his celestial debt. His descendants must pay for him." (p.5). The living person attempts to pay off this debt by praying and making monetary donations to the gods and temples. Yet, no i pays off their debts entirely while alive, and then their remaining family unit burns spirit money which is transmitted to their deceased family unit fellow member. The deceased family unit member uses this money to pay downwards the remainder of his debt and embarks on his karmic journey.
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"Then y'all just burn information technology? There's no other use?"
She smiled a lilliputian. "No. We simply use paper money for called-for. We use existent coin (the American dollar) on an altar or Buddha." The girl meant a tradition to put real money (or coin that the living used) on an altar or a Buddha statue for blessings and adept fortune.
At this point, some other woman came into my view. She was a lot older, perchance the girl's mother. The mother spoke quickly to the girl in Vietnamese, pointing at me, and daughter spoke dorsum to her in Vietnamese. Although I did non understand, I was sure she was request about who I was and what was my business with the girl.
Then the girl turned dorsum to me. "This is my mother" she said calmly.
"Hey, I'm lamentable, am I interrupting anything?" I speedily suggested
"How-do-you-do. No, not at all," was her reply.
"Do you mind me asking a few questions about this hell money?" I needed a perspective one generation older on hell money. At this betoken, I turned my attention on the mother.
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Spirit money is also used in activities outside of funerals. Spirit money tin can used to cast away foul spirits that interrupt offerings to the gods or ancestors and create problems in i'due south life. This blazon of ritual is performed by hoat-su. These are specialists in performing rituals for clients who seek their help with disease or other personal bug (p. 8). The hoat-su writes, Heaven and Earth, the Lord of Thunder, and all the gods of Mainland china'south three religions control with all their power the god of the year and the gods of the months and hours to dispel whatever evil powers threaten here, on a paper charms in gild to expel the evil spirits. The hoat-su then stamps the charm, burns it, dissolves the ashes in a cup of water, sips water, and spurts it out. Spirit coin tin besides exist used as a bribe to go on ghosts abroad. Burning spirit money serves as purification which separates the living from spirits ---
"I've been called-for money since I was a kid. My mom told me it was for my grandmother in heaven. I was very immature, perhaps twelve? My parents explained what it was and how when I burn down information technology, it volition assist…in the afterlife. I remember my mom giving me a agglomeration of the coin and told me to throw it into the flame in the grill, like a bbq grill. I threw the money into it a big cylinder, heavy, and made of metal or something similar that. We put that outside the house, and that is where my parents burned the paper coin and paper clothes. Inside the house we have the altar where we burn incense, and pray to the dead. They burned the paper clothing and money afterward the incense finished burning. Since then I take just washed this a couple of times, and have non washed information technology recently."
I apace wrote it downwardly on my notepad. "I come across. So you would consider this more than of a religious act rather than a cultural or ethnic group thing?" I asked.
"Burning money, I retrieve, is generally religious. Information technology falls more than under religious than the other groups, but information technology can be somewhat of a cultural matter likewise."
"And what do you think your girl thinks?" I asked.
"I'chiliad not sure, right now it does not seem that way. She has never participated in the bodily burning of it earlier but she does know what it is." The mother replied. "I know that my daughter doesn't really believe in it the same way as my parents practice or how my grandparents used to. I recall living in America has somewhat changed the way my girl looks at things like this."
"You know whatever history about it?" I inquired.
"I do non know how long people have been doing this. All I know is that I have done the same thing my parents and their parents did earlier. Ages ago, generations and past lives ago. Nosotros burn down the paper money for the dead, and the smoke floats on to the expressionless people and the dead employ the money in their afterlife.
"Then we pray for the dead person to give usa good luck, and good wellness. We burn down paper money, and paper clothes on the anniversary of the death of the dead person. I do know now that they have unlike stuff you can burn now. We likewise have paper gilded, and clothes. We use this to requite to the expressionless when we pray for them. I've even heard virtually simulated credit cards you lot can burn also."
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Now I knew about physical function. "Ok," I asked, "can y'all tell me more about what you believe in?"
"When you burn down the money information technology goes to the expressionless relative in the afterlife. They utilise the coin to buy like a Prada suit or something, and in return for your proficient piece of work, they give us good fortune, and their blessings. So, nosotros practise it to get good fortune. I think people have been burning money for a long time, e'er since I tin can remember.
"We just burn out of consideration for our family. The coin is almost like real money. We cannot use, but they tin can employ. It is existent important, and has a lot of value. If they died old and naturally, they go to sky or hell depending on their actions in life. But, we tin can still give them money and things equally if they were all the same alive. They are similar real people, only not right here with us, and they employ unlike money.
"If a person died unexpectedly, or untimely, they do non go to heaven or hell, just go in betwixt. I do not know where, but it is a place in between, considering they did not live long enough to decide how proficient they were, or who bad they were. And fifty-fifty though they are in this eye place, they can yet receive gifts from us like normal people. Correct, information technology does not matter where they go, or what happened to them, the dead tin can still receive gifts as if they were still live."
Information technology was time to go. I walked with them out of the temple and to their car. The slight cakewalk fabricated the air more refreshing, as I asked the girl and her mother if they had whatsoever last words before I ended the interview.
The mother went first. "I just know that the money is supposed to assist my family members in the afterlife and that is important to me. I think my family values information technology a not bad deal peculiarly my parents who still burn the money on the anniversary of their parents' decease. It is the thought of giving for our dead. It does not affair what they are, Chinese or whatever, it is important to people who burn the paper coin for the dead."
The daughter went last. "I think the "heaven coin," makes everybody who uses information technology feel ameliorate about the people who have died and information technology shows that nosotros still intendance and think about them. I guess its part of tradition and their organized religion, that's why this money is important to them."
Works Cited
Gates, Hill. "Coin for the Gods." Modernistic China xiii.3 (1987): 259-277.
McCreery, John. "Why Don't We See Some Real Money Here?: Offerings in Chinese Organized religion." Journal of Chinese Religions eighteen (1990): ane-24.
Source: https://www.anthropology.uci.edu/~wmmaurer/courses/anthro_money_2004/GhostMoney.htm
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