For many Chinese families, the New year is not just for a celebrations of family reunions but also the occasion to pay respects to one's ancestors (拜祖先）. Our family is no different. While busy with preparations for the New Year, we are also busy getting the various things required for the ancestral worship to be conducted on New Year's Eve (除夕) and on the Second Day of the New Year (年初二).
Besides the offerings of food which includes three types of meat (三生）, tea, wine, sticky rice cake （年糕）and mandarin oranges (柑橘), there are also two types of paper offerings. Preparing them is like doing origami :-)
One of the paper offering is for the Spirits of the Earth （土地神）
while the other type is for the ancestors.....
There are only six pieces of the paper offerings for the Spirits of the Earth. Here is how I folded them ....
For the ancestors, one has to prepare a lot more but they are rather simple to make. We normally prepare about two large bags and here is how we folded the paper into gold and silver ingots....
We are all ready for the ancestral worship tomorrow (New Year's Eve).
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