Something In The Air

Last week saw the start of "Ghost Month" (鬼月) here in Taiwan. It reminded me of late Fall harvest time back home in the farming community where I grew up. Why? I'll get to that in a moment.

Ghost month starts on the 15th day of the 7th month on the lunar calendar. The belief is that the ghosts/spirits from the "lower realm" are released and free to wander the earth for a month. Offerings of food and incense are therefore made on the first day of the month so as to appease the ghosts and keep them from doing mischief in one's house, family, or business. Of particular concern are the "hungry ghosts", or those spirits of the deceased that have left behind no relatives to make regular offerings and care for them in the next life. The Taiwanese also tend to avoid certain activities during this month, such as weddings, travel (other than necessary), or other significant ventures.

So why does this time remind me of harvest back home? Well, part of the offerings made to the ghosts include the burning of paper "money". The money is burned in wire cages or small burners/incinerators on the side of the street The amount each family burns is not that significant, but when you get the majority of Taiwan's population of 23 million people doing this all on the same day, it can wreak havoc with the air quality.

Back home, following the harvest, many farmers would burn off the straw swaths in the field. This would leave the air thick with the burning smell for a couple days. In Taiwan, due to heavy industry and traffic, the air quality isn't that great to begin with. So adding the smoke from hundreds of thousands of families burning ghost money on the same day puts and extra pall in the air; a similar smell to the post-harvest atmosphere back home.

I read in the news last week that the government of Taiwan was encouraging people, for the benefit of the environment, to offer flowers instead of burning incense and money. Whether that idea will catch on or not remains to be seen.

By the way, although offerings to ghosts are an ancient tradition among the Taiwanese and Chinese people, this hasn't stopped the progress of technology from having an impact on the practice. My Taiwanese teacher told me the other day that there is a website where people who are too busy or otherwise unable to prepare their own literal/physical offering tables can pay to have someone to it "virtually" for them online. Leave it to the Taiwanese to capitalize on a business opportunity when they see one!