In East Asian culture, the Chinese will have burning offerings during the Hungry Ghost Festival (which just ended last Wednesday) to their deceased relatives or wandering spirits.
In this video, the humorous Mahayana monk, Venerable You Wei explained the burning offerings in Singapore. Watch this video by Mothership for more information.
From Wikipedia Origin of Hungry Ghost Festival
The timing and origin story of the modern Ghost Festival, however, ultimately originated from ancient India, deriving from the Mahayanascripture known as the Yulanpen or Ullambana Sutra.[5]:301,302 [note 2]The sutra records the time when Maudgalyayana achieves abhijñāand uses his new found powers to search for his deceased parents. Maudgalyayana discovers that his deceased mother was reborn into the preta or hungry ghost realm. She was in a wasted condition and Maudgalyayana tried to help her by giving her a bowl of rice. Unfortunately as a preta, she was unable to eat the rice as it was transformed into burning coal. Maudgalyayana then asks the Buddha to help him; whereupon Buddha explains how one is able to assist one's current parents and deceased parents in this life and in one's past seven lives by willingly offering food, etc., to the sangha or monastic community during Pravarana (the end of the monsoon season or vassa), which usually occurs on the 15th day of the seventh month whereby the monastic community transfers the merits to the deceased parents, etc.,[6]:185 [note 3] [5]:293 [note 4] [7]:286 [note 5]
Master Xuanzang, a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar and translator, bravely took the perilous pilgrimage to India with the goal to learn Buddhism. I am grateful to Master Xuanzang who spent 19 years of his life translating the Sankrist Buddhist scriptures to Chinese after 19 years of pilgrimage.
Master Xuanzang spent 19 years of his life translating more than a thousand of scriptures to Chinese.
If you want to know more about this great monk, you can watch this documentary of Master Xuanzang.
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