Funeral Food: Chinese

In Chinese communities ancestors are honored participants in the lives of the living. At funerals symbolic foods are taken to the grave as a last offering—piles of oranges to symbolize good luck and roasted chickens or ducks to represent a whole life. After being offered to the deceased, these dishes or duplicates may be served to mourners as a way of sharing a last meal with the loved one. On the first anniversary of the death, on the person’s birthday, or during the spring festival of Ching Ming, the food offerings may be repeated.