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Hell Money
The world is peppered with all kinds of banknotes from its 200+ countries. Each note has its own name and value, ranging from the lowest denomination of Fiji's 1 penny to the highest denomination of Hungary's 100 million B-Pengo. My own country, the Philippines is the Guiness Book of World Records' current title holder for world's largest legal tender banknote: a 100000 peso bill 356mm x 216 (I own a smaller 2000 peso bill - 216mm x 133mm - the country's second largest legal tender banknote). Banknotes are so popular that as I type this Intel, hundreds of them are being generated, and millions are being circulated. They're so "always there" that we may have forgotten their importance and origin. Just imagine, if the money system was not developed you would still be paying some store clerk with a piece of, say, goat skin, in exchange for that beautiful piece of lingerie or for that pants you've been eyeing for quite some time now. You could argue, "What's the use of credit cards?" but then come to think of it these plastic things wouldn't really be so common these days if it were not for the advent of the money system! But have you ever heard of "hell money" or "hell banknotes"? This is the only currency that one can use to pay the King of Hell for safe passage or for an easier stay. You may think of it as a form of bribery or satanism, but actually it is not. This tradition is being practiced by the Chinese since time immemorial and flourished in modern times. "Hell" might instinctively make us cringe but for them it is just a place where souls pass through to somewhere better far beyond; it is simply the underworld. Some Christians are welcome to call this purgatory. This is contestable, of course, as you might have grown up believing that hell and purgatory are very very different places; but I am just using it as an analogy to underline that the Chinese belief on hell is not the same as ours on hell. Hell money is believed to not only provide safe passage but provide wealth for the dead person to spend in the afterlife that he/she may want to splurge on and make his/her stay in the underworld better. The Chinese ceremoniously burn these money over the dead person's coffin (or body) to 'send' it along with the person. The Chinese treat hell banknotes as sacred and not to be regarded in any way as a joke. The idea of a hell note might at first seem like an April fool's best-ever joke, but bringing that up to a Chinese person will get you in big trouble. These money can be bought from the internet in a variety of styles: do you want a plain banknote or you might want a fancier VISA? But be careful, owning one might bring you bad luck. And you definitely cannot give it to (a non-dead) somebody as a gift, no matter what your intentions are. Hell money? Believe it, it's for real.
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Contributor's Note
A Chemist, a Writer, a Copy Editor all rolled into one non-techie entity who is always willing to accept any constructive (and possibly destructive) criticism to help me improve and possibly become upgraded to "techie" status.
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one of the most popular hell notes in circulation
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May, 2012
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