Spiritual and religiousEast AsiaShinto, Taoist and folk ChineseBuddhist
Joss paper
In its own language: 金紙 (jīnzhǐ)
Paper money burned for ancestors and gods, folded and offered in Chinese worship
Joss paper is paper or papier-mâché shaped into money and goods and burned or buried as an offering, so that ancestors and deities have what they need in the afterlife. It belongs to Chinese ancestral worship, and is also used in Chinese folk religion, Taoist rites and the Vietnamese Lên đồng ritual, above all at funerals and on festival days.
When is Joss paper marked?
Joss paper is kept as part of Lunar New Year, which runs from 7 to 21 February 2027.
Joss paper, also called spirit money or incense paper, is paper folded or printed to look like money, along with papier-mâché goods, and burned as an offering. Chinese families use it to venerate ancestors and to honour deities, believing the dead need means in an afterlife pictured much like this one. It is folded, stacked and burned at funerals and on festival days, and it is usually the closing act of a rite.
What it is
Joss paper covers sheets, printed notes and papier-mâché objects made as offerings. Traditional versions come from coarse bamboo paper, which feels handmade and varies in thickness and finish, though rice paper is also used. Sheets are cut into squares or rectangles and decorated with seals, stamps, engraved designs or pieces of contrasting paper. Three broad kinds of spirit money are recognised: cash, silver and gold. Cash goes to the newly dead and to spirits of the unknown. Gold, called jin, is mostly for deities such as the Jade Emperor. Silver, yin, is for ancestors and other spirits. The sources stress that these distinctions are followed closely, so that no spirit is confused or slighted.
How it is kept
Folding is the heart of the practice. Folding marks the paper out as an offering rather than ordinary cash, and those who fold it are said to gain good luck. Sheets may be folded in half, bought already shaped as gold ingots, or built up into pagodas and lotuses. Most offerings are burned, usually in a large furnace outside a temple gate, in an earthenware pot or in a purpose-built chimney. In some places the paper is held into the wind instead, or laid inside the coffin at a funeral. Burning normally comes last, after the other acts of a deity or ancestor ceremony.
What it means
Ancestor veneration rests on the idea that the dead remain present in the world and can affect the fortune of the living. Offerings are made so that ancestors stay well and well disposed, and sometimes to ask for help. The afterlife is imagined as being like life here, so spirit money lets an ancestor buy comforts and necessities. Some accounts describe offerings given to Yanluo Wang as a payment to shorten an ancestor's stay or lessen punishment. Joss paper is also offered to deities in Taoist rites and in Chinese folk religion, and something similar appears in the Vietnamese Lên đồng ritual.
Days and occasions
Joss paper is burned on many days of the Chinese festival year: Lunar New Year, the Ghost Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dongzhi at the winter solstice, Qingming, Chongyang, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Hanyi Festival and the Tin Hau Festival. In Taiwan, shopkeepers light red braziers every fifteen days, burn spirit money in them and put tables of offerings out on the pavement, for gods and ghosts alike. This matches an old calendar of twenty-four periods of fifteen days. A simpler modern offering is made by chalking a circle on the pavement between buildings and burning the paper inside it, a sight common in Chinese cities and villages.
Today and change
Concern about smoke and ash has changed how the practice is carried out. Some burners now carry a cover that stops ashes scattering while letting in enough air for a complete burn. Certain provinces in China have banned burning because of air pollution, and some Chinese Buddhist temples, among them the Singapore Buddhist Lodge and Fo Guang Shan temples in Taiwan, have asked worshippers not to burn joss paper in their ancestral halls. Studies of the ash report heavy metals and other toxic components, and one study linked festival burning of gold and silver papers to Parkinson's disease in older people and slower development in children. In 2006 a Chinese deputy minister for civil affairs said the ministry intended to ban the more extreme forms.
How Joss paper is kept
Families and temple communities take part, and folding is often shared work. A person folds sheets, or buys them pre-folded as ingots, then sets out the offering. Cash paper goes to the newly dead and unknown spirits, silver to ancestors, gold to deities. At a temple the paper is burned in the furnace outside the gate; at home it may go into an earthenware pot, a chimney or a chalk circle on the pavement. In Taiwan, shopkeepers burn every fifteen days and lay out tables for gods and ghosts. Burning closes the ceremony.
When and where
Joss paper is offered throughout the year, most heavily at funerals and on festival days such as Lunar New Year, Qingming, the Ghost Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Dongzhi. In Taiwan many businesses burn every fifteen days, following a calendar of twenty-four such periods. Inside a ceremony, the burning comes last.
It is kept in Chinese communities in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore, and among Chinese families abroad, including in the United States and Britain, where immigrant-run shops supply paper goods. A similar paper is used in Vietnam in the Lên đồng ritual. Hell Bank Notes are common where Cantonese communities dominate; Taiwan and Macau mostly use gold paper.
What Joss paper means
To those who keep it, burning spirit money is a way of caring for the dead, whose world is pictured as much like this one. Ancestors who are comfortable and well disposed are thought to bring fortune to the living, so offerings express both duty and hope. Gold, silver and cash papers are kept apart so that deities, ancestors and unknown spirits each receive what suits them. Some see the notes as a plea to Yanluo Wang for a lighter sentence or a shorter stay in the underworld.
Days Joss paper is marked
Questions people ask about Joss paper
When is Joss paper marked?
Joss paper is kept as part of Lunar New Year, which runs from 7 to 21 February 2027.
What is joss paper?
It is paper, printed notes or papier-mâché objects made as burnt offerings. Sheets are cut and decorated, then folded and burned, or sometimes held into the wind or placed in a coffin. It is offered to ancestors and to deities, so that the dead have what they need in the afterlife.
Where is the practice kept?
In Chinese communities in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore, and among Chinese families in Western countries, where shops run by immigrants sell joss paper goods. The Vietnamese Lên đồng ritual uses a similar kind of paper.
Why is the paper folded?
Folding sets the offering apart from ordinary money, which would not be burned. It is also said to bring good luck to the person who folds it. Sheets may be folded in half, shaped into gold ingots, or stacked into pagodas and lotuses before burning.
Is it the same everywhere?
No. Regions differ in what they use. Hell Bank Notes, printed with very large denominations, are common where Cantonese populations dominate, while Taiwan and Macau mostly use gold paper. Designs run from simple to elaborate, sometimes with custom artwork and names.
See also
PretaOfferings and rites for spirits enduring deep hunger across Asian traditions.
Spirit houseA small roofed shrine on a pillar, kept in homes and villages across Southeast Asia to honour protective spirits.
Qingming FestivalA spring custom of sweeping family graves and honouring ancestors across East Asia.
Ghost FestivalA full-moon night in the seventh lunar month for feeding ghosts and guiding souls homeGood reading and sources
- The Straits Times - Breaking news, Singapore news, Asia and world news & multimediaThe Straits Times, Article
- The Straits Times - Breaking news, Singapore news, Asia and world news & multimediaThe Straits Times, Article
- Joss paper on WikipediaEncyclopedia
- More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
- Wikidata recordOpen data
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Joss paper", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.
More from China
All the traditions of China
🇮🇳 India and 5 morePretaप्रेत
Offerings and rites for spirits enduring deep hunger across Asian traditions.Spiritual
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreQingming Festival清明节
A spring custom of sweeping family graves and honouring ancestors across East Asia.Spiritual
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreGhost Festival中元節 / 中元节 (Zhōngyuán jié)
A full-moon night in the seventh lunar month for feeding ghosts and guiding souls homeSpiritual
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreAncestor veneration
Honouring dead relatives with offerings, meals and prayers, kept in cultures worldwideSpiritual
The same idea elsewhere
Remembering the ancestors compared
🇮🇳 Ayodhya, India and 7 moreDiwaliदीपावली (Dīpāvalī)
A five-day festival of lights celebrated across India and its diaspora to mark the victory of light over darkness.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇮🇷 Iran and 7 moreNowruzنوروز
The Iranian new year at the March equinox, kept with fire, greenery and picnicsSeasonal
🇮🇱 Jerusalem, Israel and 1 moreHanukkahחֲנֻכָּה
An eight-day Jewish festival marking the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the miracle of a single day'Festival
🇮🇳 Mathura, India and 5 moreHoliहोली (Hindi)
A spring festival of colours and bonfires that marks the end of winter and the triumph of good over evil.Festival