Multi-storied houses, luxury cars, motorbikes, laptops, toilets, servants, passports, rice cookers, TVs, other valuable items and of course, tons and tons of Benjamins go up in flames on the sidewalks of Vietnam. Not real ones, but paper models made from bamboo, collectively locally called hang ma (paper offerings). What does this signify?
Hell money/ghost money/spirit money…call it what ever you want. These are a form of joss paper resembling legal tender bank notes burnt as offerings to the deceased. It is essentially a way of showing respect to the dead that has become an important part of the culture.
The practice of ancestor worship is largely religious, stemming from the belief that the spirits of the deceased are still interested in the affairs of the world. This practice is common throughout countries in East Asia, specifically China and Vietnam. The idea is that the more offerings one burns for their dead relatives, the better their afterlives will be.
Many shops lining up the streets of Vietnam have stacks of fake $100 US Dollar bills among other types of Hang Ma for sale. People buy them in packages of various sizes. Some spend from as low as VND$200,000 (US$10.00) to even over VND$4,000,000, which is about US$200.00, on fake paper models of modern conveniences and spirit money. Some locals believe that spending so much will bring them prosperity, good luck and good health in return for their generosity.