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Spirit money has piled up at a Tainan incinerator after the Qingming Festival. These offerings are commonly burned during festivals to honor ancestors, but incinerators are struggling to keep up with the city government’s centralized burning policy. City councilors said supporting measures have fallen short, but the Tainan Environmental Protection Bureau said over 60% of the paper money has already been burned, and they expect to finish by the end of June.

Spirit money is piled all the way up to the ceiling, completely blocking the wall. On the other side of the facility, there are two more mountains.

On top of the mountains, there are burlap sacks full of even more joss paper. This is an incinerator in Tainan’s Annan District which collected massive amounts of spirit money over the Lunar New Year and Qingming Festival, when people burn them as offerings to ancestors. But this paper is still sitting here, yet to be burned.

Member of public
Finds it unreasonable
I think it’s unreasonable. It makes more sense to burn it within a week.

Member of public
Considering situation
The money from the Qingming Festival is left until Lunar New Year, and we don’t know how to explain this to our ancestors.

Lin Yen-chu
Tainan City Councilor (KMT)
We burn about 2,000 tons a year. Now Ghost Month is coming, and our brothers are only out for a month, but they won’t even have any money when they go back.

The Environmental Protection Bureau said the massive amount of joss paper has caused delays in burning it all. In addition to reducing the amount, the bureau said it would promote constructing incinerators at major temples to decentralize processing.

Huang Jen-wei
Environmental Protection Bureau official
During the Qingming Festival, about 373 tons of paper money were collected and sent to dedicated incinerators. More than 60% has already been processed. The bureau’s incinerator still has about 150 tons in storage, and it’s expected to be fully incinerated by the end of June.

With the Ghost Festival approaching, authorities are reminding people that sincerity is most important in worship. People can burn less joss paper and donate the equivalent value instead, which would reduce air pollution and ease pressure on incineration facilities, while still honoring traditional beliefs.

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