The Ancestors' Sacrifice Festival

According to the Chinese custom, the first day of the tenth lunar month is the Ancestors' Sacrifice Festival. In order to show their loyalty and respect, since ancient times people have been holding ceremonies to offer sacrifices, usually grains, to their ancestors after harvest. Sacrificial ceremonies may be held at home or in front of tombs. Such a custom is widely accepted both in the north and in the south. Up to now, it is still practiced in many parts south of the Yangtze River.
As the first day of the tenth lunar month is the very beginning of winter when the weather begins to become cold, paper clothes are among the most important necessities together with food, paper money and candles on sacrifical ceremonies. They are afraid that their ancestors do not have enough clothes. On the ceremony, they burn paper clothes to send them to their beloved ones. In this case, the Ancestors' Sacrifice Festival is also known as the "Clothes-burning Festival".
As time goes by, some changes have taken place to the clothes-burning custom. People do not burn clothes any more. Instead, they burn "packages". Packages are envelope-like paper bags containing paper money with the ancestors' names and addresses. They burn such packages to send money to their ancestors, because they believe that their ancestors can buy clothes and other things with the money as the living people do.
In some places, special ceremonies are held to offer sacrifices to the God of Ox on the same day. The custom can be traced back to the State of Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period (770B.C.-476 B.C.). One day when Emperor Wengong ordered to cut a catalpa, the tree turned into an ox.