The ancient Chinese tradition of “Feeding the Hungry Ghosts” comes to Shoreline as a participatory art-activity available for visitors to the Celebrate Shoreline Festival on Saturday, August 20 from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Cromwell Park, 8030 Meridian Ave N, Shoreline, WA 98133. The event is free.
While the Festival goes till 9:00 p.m., the art activity runs from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and features several tables with preassembled joss paper crafts as well as build-your-own joss paper objects, including a wide variety of “extreme” joss (called zhizha in Hong Kong), such as paper luxury goods ranging from iPhones to wads of 100 dollar bills to Rolex watches, prepared food items, and Gucci handbags. Joss objects are all originally intended to be burned as an offering to ancestors, both recent and remote, so that they enjoy themselves in the afterlife.
Artists Shin Yu Pai and Eddie Tang will share joss-related arts projects, including literary art and original joss paper art. The public is invited to make joss objects and either burn them, keep them, or contribute them for a planned Contemporary Joss Art exhibition at Shoreline City Hall.
