The format of the package for the Mid-Autumn Festival. The method of writing the package for the Mid-Autumn Festival

The Zhongyuan Festival is the legendary Ghost Festival. In most places, there is a custom of burning paper money. The folded paper money is placed in an extra-large envelope, and then the envelope and the paper money are burned. This act of offering paper money to the deceased is called "writing envelopes". There is a whole culture of writing envelopes, and there are many particularities in the way the ancestors are addressed. So, how to write a package for the Mid-Autumn Festival? Let’s take a look.

July 15th writing package format: the meaning of "writing package"

The words "loyalty" and "filial piety" are saturated between the lines of the envelope culture. It is a highly concentrated idea of ​​respecting ancestors and a design for the living to revitalize the souls of the dead, so that the dead in the underworld can receive big red envelopes just like the living, have money to spend frequently, enjoy good material things, and live a carefree life. It is permeated with the primitive idea of ​​"filial piety" that "it is better to injure the living than to offend the dead", which is also a reflection of the deep-rooted pursuit of having many children and blessings as descendants.

July Mid-Autumn Festival writing format: Title writing format

When writing an envelope, in addition to knowing how to address others, one also needs to understand the writing format. The writing format is uniformly arranged from right to left in vertical lines, with men addressed as Kao and women as Bi. It also depends on the time and purpose of sending the package.
Written to my deceased father: (first line on the right) Zhongyuan Shenghui (some say it should be Zhongyuan Shenghui) the filial son (daughter) XXX devoutly prepares money for the afterlife, and presents XX package to the emperor (second line on the right), so that the soul of my late father XXX may receive it (middle line), and he may ascend to the immortal world (or heavenly world, or be reborn) as soon as possible (second line on the left), and the wealth will be transformed on the auspicious day of July 13th (after the 13th) in the year of Tianyun XX (according to the year number of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches) (first line on the left).
Written to the deceased mother: The middle line reads: The soul of the late deceased X (husband’s surname) and X (mother’s surname) old lady is being taken in. The rest is the same as written to the father.