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Life Stages－Posthumous birthday

Place：Sheung Shui Village(inside the wall)
Date：1963-12-06
Observation：The father of two of the women here would have been 81 years old on the day the shot was taken. He had in fact died more than a decade before, but his birthday was celebrated just the same. There was a feast held in front of the ancestral altar where his spirit was lodged, and he was sent many offerings to mark the occasion. He and his two sons who had both died young each received a paper horse, and there were many sacks of gold and silver paper ingots, and a large chest full of paper clothes, as well as a paper car and a paper sedan chair. All these were burned to transport them to the after-world. One of the daughters is writing her father’s name on his horse, to ensure it reached the right person.