What's the matter with burning steamed buns on July 15?

"Burning Bao" refers to burning wrapped paper money during ancestor worship, which is a form of ancestor worship. Yuan Mei's "Burning Treasure in New Qi Xie": "In July and a half, Cantonese people mostly burned it with paper money, which is called burning treasure, and each sacrificed to his ancestors." Every year, the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is Japan's "Bonihara Festival", also known as "Zhongyuan Festival" (in a sense, Zhongyuan Festival belongs to Taoism and Bonihara Festival belongs to Buddhism). In some places, it is usually called "Ghost Festival" and "Stone Drum", also known as the Day of the Dead and July and a half. "Ghost Festival", commonly known as "July and a half" (13th or 14th in some areas).

It is said that the dead ancestors were released by Yan for half a month at the beginning of July, so there is a custom of receiving their ancestors at the beginning of July and seeing them off at the end of July. When I sent it to my ancestors, I burned a lot of paper money for "ancestors to enjoy". At the same time, put the money paper in a paper envelope with the owner's name written on it and burn it at the time of sacrifice. This is the so-called "burning bag". Burn new bags that died within the year, and burn old bags that died more than one year. No matter rich or poor, we should prepare food, wine and paper money to pay homage to the deceased to show our memory of the deceased ancestors. The Mid-Autumn Festival is usually seven days, and there are old and new people. Those who die within three years are called new deaths, and those who died three years ago are called old deaths.

Superstition is that the old and the new will go home to visit during this period, and the old and the new will come back at different times. The new one will come back first, and the old one will come back after the meeting. So it is necessary to visit the shrine alone. The time to burn paper money is in the dead of night. Sprinkle a few circles of lime in the yard first, saying that the paper money is burned in the circle and the ghosts dare not rob it, and then burn it in piles. When burning, I kept chanting: "So-and-so will get the money." Finally, we have to burn a pile outside the circle, saying it is for ghosts. On the day when the deceased goes back, both rich and poor people should cook a good meal to commemorate the deceased, which is also called "seeing the deceased off".