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Mortuary staff say offerings to the dead are being sold

Rumors have emerged from both the Taipei First and Second Municipal Mortuary that unscrupulous funeral directors are selling the offerings brought by family and friends of the deceased to restaurants, according to local media reports yesterday.

The reports stated that numerous staff members at Taipei's two main mortuaries said the practice has existed for many years, but that now it was getting out of hand, which is why they had decided to go public. The reports said the business was worth tens of millions of NT dollars.

One Taipei First Municipal Mortuary employee said families of the deceased always bring offerings of food to be displayed at the funeral. These offerings are often organized by the funeral directors. While a portion of the offerings may be taken home by family members, more families have begun to ask that the food be passed on to others in need. According to the staffer, some funeral directors simply commandeer the offerings, even forbidding families who wish to take the offerings home from doing so.

The offerings consist of three sacrificial beasts and the five sacrifices: of a pig's head, a chicken, a duck, fish, pork belly and cured ham. Mortuary staff said that offerings are sold to restaurant operators for a few hundred dollars per portion and turned into lunch boxes or other dishes.

The city's Mortuary Services Office said it had no knowledge of the situation or confirmation of complicity between the mortuary staff and funeral directors.
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