No Fomo: Spirits can feast on 'durian' treats this coming Hungry Ghost Festival

No Fomo for the spirits this durian season – this prayer gift shop in Malaysia has got you (and your ancestors) covered.

The annual Hungry Ghost Festival will be here on August 12, and one woman travelled some 70km to make an uncommon request for a basket of paper durians to a prayer paraphernalia store in Malaysia. 

"A customer who came all the way from Pontian (about 70km from here) asked for a basket of durians for her late father, who used to grow and pick the fruit before he passed away. 

"It took me about a week to produce the rattan basket filled with seven durians," store owner Raymond Shieh, 46, said in an interview with The Star. 

Shieh, who has a graphic design background, shared that he made paper cones and attached each cone to the main body one by one to make the design more realistic. 

The customer was overjoyed after seeing the finished product, added Shieh.

Last year, this same store owner sold RM30 (S$9.60) 'Hell Covid-19 Vaccine' sets after customers told him that they wanted to "fulfil their deceased loved ones' wishes of getting the Covid-19 vaccine."

The 46-year-old told The Star back then that it took him two days to come up with the prototype which consists of a large syringe and vaccine bottles.

Similarly across the border in Tampines, a store was seen selling paper 'face masks for ancestors', and more recently, AsiaOne spotted another shop along New Upper Changi Road with paper offerings of McDonald's food items.

One set was wrapped in a box complete with a taro pie, McFlurry, McNuggets, burgers and more from the fast food joint's menu. 

Next to it, there was also a box of what looks like durians too.

While satiating an ancestor's durian cravings in the afterlife is important, don't forget to burn the offerings in metal bins. 

Last September, a woman's belongings caught on fire after her neighbour burned joss paper along the common corridor. 

The Hungry Ghost Festival traditionally falls on the 15th day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar where many Chinese make offerings of food, candles, joss sticks and paper money to the deceased.

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