Hong Kong's Paper offerings 香港的祭品店

Chinese believe that after death, our souls will live in another world.  So the lonely souls still need friends, servants or daily necessities.  For catering their ancestors' lonely souls, people make different offerings for them.

The terra-cotta warriors in Xian were the offerings for protecting the soul of the first emperor of China.

Nowadays, common Chinese still make and burn lots of different kinds of paper offerings for their ancestors.

People burn the paper money for the ancestors.  Then the ancestors can ‘maintain’ their ‘paper houses’ and a ‘team of paper servant’.  They can even ‘play’ the ‘paper mahjong’!

People want to be rich.  So they want their ancestors in the paradise to be wealthy also.  So they burn the ‘paper Benz’, ‘paper I-PAD’, ‘Paper LV handbag’ etc. for the ancestors.

Paper offerings are an important channel for the filial descendants to mourn their ancestors.  They are also the emotional projection of people’s wishes.

In Hong Kong, there are lots of paper offering shops.  The artists inside are the living cultural heritage because they know some fading skills, like making paper lanterns!

Want to visit the paper offering shop?  You may call Frank the tour guide!

 

中國人重視祭祖，春秋二祭前，祭品店都是人山人海的。

過去，香港人只買一些簡單的香燭、紙錢和衣包，燒給過世的親人，以表孝思

現在，香港富起來了，香港人拜祭祖先時，都加入了他們「明天要更好」的想法。

所以除了買簡單的祭品，他們會買許多「紙LV手袋」、「紙BENZ」、「紙I-PAD」等，燒給先人，希望先人們在陰間有一個富裕的生活，而先人又會保護他們在人間愈來愈富有。

而以巧手創造許多新式祭品的師傅們，其實就是活的文化遺產。因為他們除設計祭品給先人，還懂得一些差不多失傳的技藝，如紙紥燈籠等。

想參觀香港有趣的祭品店嗎?可和導遊阿亮聯絡。