A dialogue between two generations of daughters-in-law on eco-friendly food customs

Ancestor worship A lavish tableful

Elders enjoy worship rituals because their children and grandchildren all come home; the elderly love lively gatherings, and with many people around, there naturally has to be a lavish meal. Worship has its basic "platters": the Earth God loves chicken legs, so a bowl of rice, a chicken leg and a bowl of vegetables make the best setup; worshipping the ancestors definitely requires celery (symbolizing that people will have an "easy" life), dried tofu (symbolizing that descendants will "become officials"), bean sprouts (named for their shape, "as one wishes"), and chives (lasting). Among the three sacrificial animals, choose one from chicken, duck and goose, while fish and pork are of course indispensable offerings; at Dragon Boat Festival there must be red amaranth and yardlong beans, and besides rice there will also be fried noodles or rice vermicelli. Such a rich meal reflects the culture of Taiwan's agricultural society.

Everyone is busy and has no time to prepare so many dishes, so is it all right to offer canned food? The participating partners all agreed: whatever has been offered usually becomes the main meal. The ancestors eat the same as we do; it is just that at worship time a little extra is prepared, and offering canned food seems too insincere. On the other hand, rice crackers whose name sounds like "prosperity" are often a must-have treat on the offering table because they are so auspicious.

Social change Worship rituals transform too

Because of the flourishing of industry and commerce, Taiwan has transformed from an agricultural society into an industrial and commercial one. Elders grow old, children grow up and leave the nest, and the lavish tableful at festivals can no longer be finished by just one or two people; repeatedly reheating uneaten dishes also fails to meet health requirements. After the children marry and set up their own homes, the daughters-in-law have to work and may also follow different religious beliefs, so they will not necessarily prepare worship the way the previous generation did. Mothers who have grown older simply choose to play the "bad guy" once and make some simplifications and reforms in "worship."

Worship is about seeking peace of mind for the elders and for oneself. With the big changes in the wider environment, mothers wisely adjust their worship tricks: for example, simplifying the way they worship, no longer preparing too many sacrificial dishes; having to remember to worship on every death anniversary of the ancestors is truly hard work, and if one forgets, one feels guilty. So after communicating with the elders and asking the ancestors for consent through poe divination, they concentrate the ancestors' death anniversaries and birthdays into the Chung Yeung Ancestor Festival for a single offering, saving themselves the unease of forgetting the ancestors' death anniversaries and the tiring shopping and cooking for worship. With simple households, buffets offering small amounts and many choices solve busy modern people's "worship" troubles.

Seeing the "worship" business opportunities arising from social transformation, private operators now offer services to place ancestral tablets in temples, where the ancestors listen to Buddhist chanting amid evening drums and morning bells. Running folk memorial services as a business, they prepare vegetarian offerings on behalf of families at festivals, which descendants can enjoy on site or donate to charitable groups.

How can worship be eco-friendly?

Reducing the burning of joss paper at festivals is a task promoted by the Environmental Protection Administration in recent years. Mothers with Buddhist beliefs can show respect by offering tea instead of lighting incense and worshipping quietly. One can even gradually communicate with the elders at home. Lishu, a mother in the reading group, told her 85-year-old father-in-law: "If you can already go to heaven, yet we burn joss paper to send to hell for you, wouldn't that take you to a bad place?" The elder happily accepted this idea.

Buddhism offers "chanting sutras and dedicating the merit" as a better way to repay deceased relatives. If the elders cannot accept these ideas, then one can work toward communicating with them and, after informing the ancestors, reducing the amount of joss paper burned. In recent years, with vigorous advocacy and publicity by environmental groups and public agencies, some results seem to have been seen.

In addition, using fresh flowers and fruit instead of fish and meat at worship at home and in temples, offering tea instead of burning incense, and replacing offerings with donations provide more practical help to temples. When worshipping in temples, one can also join palms in silent prayer instead of burning incense, speaking with the deities with a reverent heart.

Temple fairs and rites often cause serious environmental problems, and these have improved somewhat as environmental awareness has risen. We tend to feel more for our own parents, and there is no need to expect our grandchildren to remember us the same way. Worship rituals will change as the times evolve; they are simply an expression of the idea of remembering our origins and honoring the departed, and it is enough to do so in a way one can accept and that is eco-friendly.

As social patterns change, festivals are no longer the way people interact in traditional society, but religious belief remains an important spiritual anchor for people, and honoring ancestors is even more a cultural heritage. As for "worship" rituals, they can be carried out in appropriate ways. The mothers in the reading group express new ideas for the traditional "worship" that step out of conventional thinking.[This article is published simultaneously on the Homemakers United Foundationofficial website】

(Text: Lin Shu-ning / Advisory Committee Member, Taichung Chapter, Homemakers United Foundation)