One of my students wanted to know about the ritual that the Chinese family was doing in the latest episode of AHS. The ritual involves burning what we call ghost or joss or better known to Westerners as hell money. They come in 3 different varieties copper,silver,and gold. Copper is for the recently deceased and unknown spirits. Silver is for your ancestors and local deities and gold is for the deceased and higher beings such as the Jade Emperor. The money is used by the spirits to either make their afterlife better or to bribe demons and devils to speed up your release from the Underworld(Hell).