Singapore’s Hungry Ghost festival littered with challenges over improper burning of joss paper

Sociologists say the government has launched a ground-up approach by asking religious and community leaders to educate the community, but lingering tensions among residents over public cleanliness speak to the challenges facing multi-ethnic and religious societies like Singapore.

A Reddit post of a densely packed housing block walkway covered in ashes and unburnt offerings and questioning if it was “reportable” was uploaded on Tuesday and has since garnered more than 120 upvotes.

One user questioned: “Is it also part of their religious practice for other people to clean up for them?” while another wrote: “You can get [the] town council to come clean it. But that is all they can do. Inconsiderate people are still going to be littering and polluting the air non-stop.”