Hungry Ghost

This is something I pass everyday, and something similar I see all over the city. These are little buddhist sites for various worship, I think.  And this month is the month of the ghost in the buddhist realm. While this is our calendar year of August, we are in July of the lunar calendar. July (August 7 thru the 4) is the month of the ghost, or something like that.
And in this lunar month, is the Hungry Ghost Festival where people burn things to feed the ghosts of ancestors.  I've attached something from a news article explaining it a bit better, but people can burn anything and spend a good deal of money to burn these items for the afterlife.  Really?

HONG KONG (Reuters) - At a workshop in an old Hong Kong neighborhood, paper craftsman uses delicate sheets of paper and sticks of bamboo to fashion a huge, expensive boat that will soon be consigned to the flames.

The Hungry Ghosts festival that has prompted Ha's exquisite labors centers on a superstition that the spirits of the dead return to Earth during the seventh month of the Chinese Lunar calendar, which runs from August 7 to September 4 this year.

Five meters (16 feet) long, Ha's boat is one of numerous paper offerings ordered by Buddhist temples at this time of year, when many Chinese around the world tread more cautiously and make an extra effort to appease the roaming souls.

All kinds of items made of paper - including clothes, "gold" and "silver" ingots, mansions and boats - are burned to ensure the ghosts have enough to tide them over until the next year.