Remnants of age-old customs still adopted by a few Chinese families

in prayers to deities and ancestors, burning paper clothing and money

for and offering food to those already departed carry no Buddhist

connotations whatsoever and are nowhere mentioned in the Tripitaka.

Neither are they ever done even in India. Such customs are but

exhibitions of sentiments mired in misconceptions of the dead still

being in need of anything material. The Buddha had never spoken

about any of them.