Buoy Don’t Float

Had a death anniversary for my cousin-in-law last weekend. His side of the family came, which I’ve never seen before. It was really interesting because they were Buddhist. We were at his headstone for at least half an hour burning offerings. Half an hour is a lot of time to spend at a cemetary. Regardless, I was a first time. They brought bags and bags of paper–which I didn’t know what for right away.

We started as usual with some new flowers and cleaning Steve’s headstone. Then we prepped him the traditional beer and cigarette. After that, my in-laws started burning stuff. They started with paper wishes, and then what look like confetti. Then they burned fake money to deposit into Steve’s afterlife bank account. Next came the gold bars–paper of course. Those didn’t burn too well so Steve probably only got half a bar. Last, we burned a full fledged paper suit, complete with tie and pants. All I can say is that I hope Steve enjoys a wealthy afterlife.