street offerings, follow-up

A good friend of mine that lived in Hanoi for a time wrote to me with more information about the street offerings and what they mean (thanks Barb!)... It's really interesting to me... goes with what I've heard and seen so far... but I have yet to see an offering/burning of a DVD player, motorbike, etc.   : )

From Barb:

"My Vietnamese colleagues explained it this way, when you burn these offerings of money, motorcycles, clothes, etc etc, the smoke wafts its way to the heavens where the relatives all live now and they may need these things in the after life.  At the time of Tet, this smoke goes up to the Kitchen Gods where you have spent days making your home more acceptable to them. It is a Chinese custom..."

From the www:

"At Chinese New Year people burn money and other fake valuable items, by doing this they believe that they will be then passed on to their ancestors in the afterlife where it is valuable.
You may also see DVD players, TVs, jewellery, food and clothes being burnt...
They also burn incense when giving these offerings.
They also do this at other times of the year, an anniversary of someones death, and on Tomb Sweeping day."