Another Use Of Tofu (豆腐的妙用)

Obviously, tofu is a type of food that we consume or used in Asian cooking…

There is a Chinese saying: 吃人豆腐 which means ‘taking a lady’s advantage’.

In Taoist offering to spirits, tofu is a must item; and do you know that we can use tofu to attract ghosts?

The method is simple:

You will need a few pieces of big tofu, a bell, some incense sticks, joss papers, some flour or chalk and 1 ~ 5 pieces of soul banners (招魂幡).

You will also need at least 2 players including you; but best if you can get 5.

The best place to perform this game is in a cemetery or a known haunted place and the time should be after 9pm.

First, at the designated place and time, the tofu pieces are placed on the floor and 3~5 pieces of incense sticks are plugged into the tofu. After that, spread the flour/chalk around the tofu evenly. Then some joss papers are thrown into the air to open the spirit portal (开路).

One of the participant should hold the bell and sound the bell slowly and best if he/she could chant some mantra, this would tell the spirits that the food is served and they shall come ASAP.

While the companions hold the soul banners and walked towards the 4 directions slowly. If anyone feels his/her arms felt heavy; that is the sure sign that the spirits are gathering. There should be some wind or breeze too. At this point, the person who holds the soul banner should return to the starting point and plug the soul banner into the floor.

Now, everyone can start inspecting the surface of the flour/chalk and there should be some patterns that resembles footprints but the sizes could be smaller than the human feet.

There are many explanations to these mysterious patterns:

It could just be that the ground is wet and the flour/chalk that has absorbed the ground moisture and forms some interesting patterns. Whatever case that might be, please just treat this as a game if you chose to play it. Please also remember to burn away all of the banners and joss papers before returning. This is to prevent any spirits from following you back.