In the Taoist religion, one would normally only see 'hell money' being burned during the annual Qingming festival as a form of offering and to pay respect to the deceased.
Recently, however, hell money has made its appearance in politics, where earlier this week protesters were seen throwing hell money during an Umno Youth-led protest outside DAP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Three months ago, two Gerakan leaders received death threats in the form of hell money mailed to their headquarters with English messages printed on them, telling the duo to "go to hell".
To make sense of this, Malaysiakini spoke to Federation of Taoist Associations in Malaysia (FTAM) president Tan Hoe Thieow for an insight into the significance of hell money in Taoist culture.
"Hell money is money that we offer to the deceased, and normally it has to be burned so the deceased in 'hell' will be able to receive the money," he told Malaysiakini.
It is usually pieces of paper resembling legal tender bank notes depicting the Jade Emperor's face as well as the note's denomination, he added.
Clearing misconception, he said hell money is not inherent to Chinese culture, but rather Taoist culture, adding that in Buddhism, there is no such thing as burning hell money.
He also clarified that there are actually three different types of paper offerings for the deceased in Taoism, with hell money being one, and the other two being 'passage money' and incense paper.
"In ancient China, you had to pay toll for the deceased. When they hiked to the graveyard, they would throw white-coloured paper; this was to buy their passage," he said, explaining the purpose of passage money.
Meanwhile, incense paper is yellow or gold paper that is burned as an offering to the deceased in most Taoist religious ceremonies.
Hell money is usually only burned during Qingming, which is a day dedicated to paying respect to family ancestors, Tan said, adding that it was accepted into Taoist culture after it became commercialised.
"There was no such thing as hell money in ancient China, (but) it has since been accepted (in modern culture)," he said.
Deplorable act
Commenting on the emergence of hell money in politics, Tan described it as a very unethical practice. He criticised Malaysian politicians for resorting to such tactics.
"I don't think politics should involve religion. I deplore the way Malaysian politicians are behaving.
“I see on Facebook whereby they have pictures of our leaders on an altar of a dead person... They stooped so low as to say that they (the leaders) are already dead," he added.
It is absolutely wrong to use religion to insult another person, he said, referring to Umno Youth's protest outside DAP headquarters.
"I would say they are indirectly telling others to 'go to hell', which is very bad of Umno Youth.
"They should refrain from doing this and we are very much against them doing something so unethical," he said.
On Tuesday, about 200 protesters led by Umno Youth gathered outside the DAP headquarters to vent their frustration against a DAP lawmaker accused of insulting Islam.
They threw the hell money outside the building and in the direction of DAP's representative Chu Yoon Ming after he received their memorandum.
“Nah, take this duit raya,” said one protester as he threw the hell notes.
Quizzed on the hell notes, one of the protesters replied: "Kerana kita nak kasi orang DAP mati ma (We want DAP people to die)." - Mkini
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