Some of the local dramas especially those in Taiwanese language, are filmed with ghost stories to teach people lessons. The story behind the scene could be the rich family who owned the big house with lots of servants and wives. Just like the normal palace in this world, different women fought with each other or killed by the queen, ending up death with mystery. The Taiwanese people believe that the soul will come out of body after death, and the ghosts can not land on the ground. They don’t walk; instead, they just float few inches from the ground. If the dead person had history with someone else, he may revenge or enter into someone’s body to do anything he wants. They could even show up in the dream if someone did something really bad to them. The ghosts can move in a second in any space without seeing by normal people. We also believe that the dead people can receive the money after we burn the ghost papers to them. And that is the main reason why people prepare ghost papers whether praying at the temple or visiting the tomb of ancestors.

People believe that there is another world for the dead, or the hell. When people died, they did not realize their soul had come out of body after 7 days. Each soul will be summoned by the messengers , the black & white generals from the hell, and the dead can no longer go back to human life. It is said that the hell is controlled by the Yamaraja god, and each one of the souls needs to be viewed by Yamaraja god. After checking all the past behavior of the dead, he will be sentenced to a new identity for next life. The sentenced soul will either be a rich human if he was a good man in this life, or he will be an animal so he can repay all his previous deeds.

It is also believed that the people who die out of incident will end up staying at the ghost village, waiting for their sentences. Some people who miss their dead family will visit the priest for seeing their loved ones. The priest needs to show their power to guide them to the hell, and reminds them to return to the living body after 15 minutes. Otherwise, their souls will be kept at the hell forever.

Some people even said that there is a underworld for keeping everyone’s wealth. Each person has a room to keep the rices and dry foods. If the rice vat is full, it means this person is rich in his life. How much money you have depends on the gods, and that’s why people here believe being wealthy is a kind of destiny. Other dry foods may represent the job you do in this life, whether you will be an official or not depends on the quantity of dry foods you have in the room.

Whatever the story is, these myths teach us to be kind and behave well in this life. Don’t be greed or jealous of others because gods all arrange well for each person.