Thousands of Taoists observed the rite by visiting and sprucing up graves and offering prayers to their ancestors. Families burned incense and made paper offerings of hell money, houses, clothes, cell phones, cars, digital cameras and makeup kits, for the departed to use in the afterlife. An assortment of food, drinks and fruits were laid out as offerings to the dead.
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The Chinese believe in order for the spirits of deceased ancestors to bless and look after their families, they have to be offered food and “spirit money” to keep them happy.

Sean - the service was really touching; it obviously meant a great deal to the people there, old and young. We don’t have the language/cultural literacy to know most of what was said or what it all meant. But communities like this have been dealing with the spiritual incompatability issues for generations now. But I agree with what you said about things being deeply entrenched and not easy to sweep away. As you’ll see when we post our upcoming batch of pictures, even though Taipei is a modern developed city, many traditional practices are still common even among the rich, educated, and modern.

Ruth - maybe we’d tell the kids what their shirts say… if we could figure it out for ourselves!