A modest, functional offering with three each of fresh persimmons, apples, and clementines, a package of soda crackers, and six incense sticks, but no joss paper (spirit money) is set out on a folding table in front of a small clothing store in central Taipei.
Like many other shops, the owner also used to burn joss paper twice monthly, but stopped a couple years back for environmental reasons, saying that the practice is “unnecessary” and a matter of personal faith and belief.
There is no regimen, she explained, “people do as they please”. She continues the tradition twice a year in observance of important holidays like Chinese New Year and Hungry Ghost Festival, a ritual commemorating the dead.