Offering Item Number: 3396/22 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Joss paper hat-style offering. Circular frame composed of stiff paper, with a tent-like section folded down at centre. The paper has a bold pattern of black hexagons with white flowers within, and a bright blue in the space between hexagons. There is a half-circle gold-coloured imitation foil decoration on one face of the hat.

History Of Use

Joss papers (金纸, literally 'gold paper') are paper offerings and physical representations of money, and/or daily necessities, and are burnt in Chinese ancestral worship as ritual offerings to the dead. They are also used around Lunar New Year festivities. The Lunar New Year is not a public holiday in Thailand, but many ethnic Chinese, who make up about 15 percent of the population in Thailand celebrate it there. The offerings may have been made in Thailand, or imported from China.

Narrative

Collected by the donor in Bangkok in either 1989 or 1995.