ABSTRACT
A chinese family, especially in rural China, is far more than a group of related individuals. In Taitou, as well as in other villages, it is a complex organization of family members, family property, domestic animals, family reputations, family traditions, and family gods. It can be said that the family extends to the as yet unborn generations and to the long-deceased ones. The living traditionally believe that their ancestors’ spirits, whether in the ancestral graves or in Heaven, are with them and are keeping watchful eyes upon them at all times. A family’s fortune or misfortune is largely controlled by spirits of the ancestors. When the spirits are pleased, the family will receive blessings; but when they have been antagonized, disaster inevitably comes. They must be invited to participate in all special occasions, such as festivals, weddings, and births, and homage must be paid to them at their graves, in the ancestral halls, or before the ceremonial tables of the family. This sense of kinship is strongest at the New Year Festival, a time when the living feel their ancestors to be actually with them.
