Gucci worried about its brands used in paper offerings to dead in Chinese Ghost festival

BEIJING: Gucci has become the first international brand to complain about the use of its name in paper replicas of bags, cloths and shoes that are given by Chinese as offerings for dead ancestors during the ongoing tomb-sweeping festival called Qingming. Gucci has sent out an "informational" letter to shop owners in Hong Kong who sell paper replicas of goods carrying its brand name.
"We fully respect the funeral context and we trust that the store owners did not have the intention to infringe Gucci's trademark," Gucci Hong Kong said in a statement. "Thus a letter was sent on an informational basis to let these stores know about the products they were carrying, and by asking them to stop selling those items."
The letter has trickled many funny bone on the Chinese social media with some asking if Gucci would be making products for the afterlife. Others asked if Gucci is afraid of ghosts using its brand.
In Hong Kong, some of the shops that had reportedly received the letters had removed their Gucci wares. But product manufacturers like Louis Vuitton, Yves St Laurent, Burberry and New Balance, have not yet reacted in this manner although these brands are also used with paper replicas of luxury goods served to the dead.
Millions of Chinese offer paper versions of high-end things meant to make afterlife comfortable for their dead parents and grandparents. They include mansions, cars, iPads and luxury bags are burnt in the belief that deceased relatives can use them in the afterlife. These items are offered as part of the old tradition of venerating ancestors.
They include paper replicas of cars, mansions, iPads, and branded bags, which are burnt on street corners with certain rituals or offered along with joss sticks and flowers at their tombs in graveyards. Sometimes water in poured in round circles around the place where a fire is lit. This is some similar to a Hindu ritual of water circles around a vegetable cut up to symbolize sacrifice.
Dead ancestors are also given a taste of European or American servants, which possibly reflect the desire of those offering these items. Thus, paper castles sometimes have western servants or drivers have European chafferers.
The Ghost festival, as the tomb-sweeping time is also called, has undergone change since the old times when people were contended with offering fruits, food and burning joss sticks at the tombs. Chinese also burst some "hell money", which are fake currency notes of outlandish denominations like 100,000 or one million.
The idea is to ensure that dead ancestors do not lead the life of a pauper. But many Chinese follow the tradition out of a popular belief that dissatisfied ancestors can bring bad luck, and it is best to avoid ill omen by keeping the souls happy with fake goods.