As the public gears up for the peak period for offerings for “Ghost Month,” the amount of local products sold to be used for offerings has exceeded the sales of foreign products, with the Kuai Kuai (乖乖) brand’s products — in particular the products with green packaging — flying off the shelves three times faster than normal, according to local supermarkets.
The entire seventh month of the lunar calendar is considered the “Ghost Month,” in which, according to traditional Chinese beliefs, spirits are released from the underworld into the mortal realm. During this time, offerings can be seen on the streets on a daily basis.
It is common to see the bulk of offerings laid out during the weekend closest to the Chung Yuan Festival (中元節), also known as the Ghost Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, as this is when the gates of the underworld are said to open.
Photo: Yang Chiu-ying, Taipei Times
Deputy director Chen Hsiu-shan (陳琇珊) at Pxmart, one of the nation’s supermarket chains, said the elevated sales of green-packaged Kuai Kuai products during Ghost Month is a recent phenomenon, adding that a preference for products with green packaging is all the more evident near technological centers such as the Hsinchu Science Park and Taoyuan’s Bade Industrial Park.
According to Kuai Kuai general supervisor Tsai You-hui (蔡幼輝), no one expected a Taiwanese brand to become so popular during this time.
“With the increasing importance of technology and the brand’s lucky name [which in Mandarin literally means “be good”], technology companies often buy green bags of Kuai Kuai and leave them beside the computer servers as an offering, hoping that the color green — which symbolizes ‘all normal’ in technology circles — would smooth out any snarls in the system,” Tsai said.
It is because of this belief that during Ghost Month our sales numbers are three times that of any normal time, Tsai said.
Yu Chun Technology deputy general manager Liu Hsiao-chuan (劉孝椽) said that even companies which spearhead the advances of technology cannot set the traditional beliefs aside.
“We would rather believe that there might be some truth to the belief,” Liu said, adding that they would never place a yellow or red bag of Kuai Kuai near the server mainframe.
However, folklore scholar Lin Mao-hsien (林茂賢) said there was no specific sort of offering that spirits preferred and that the choice of offering was mainly down to the preference of those bringing the offering.
Meanwhile, both Carrefour and Pxmart have said that since the beginning of the seventh month of the lunar calendar two weeks ago, more locally produced products have been sold than their foreign equivalents.
Local soft drinks have trumped sales of foreign cola products while sales of cookies and biscuits of local origin have also exceeded sales of their foreign counterparts, both chainstores said.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
RSS