Is it legal to burn joss paper where I live?

No law mentions joss paper

We went through the published rules for Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom — four English-speaking countries with long-established Chinese communities, which is why they are the four. Not one of them has a provision about joss paper, spirit money, or ritual burning as such.

So if you have been searching “is burning joss paper legal in Canada” and finding nothing useful — that is not your search technique. The law you are looking for does not exist.

What does exist is several unrelated sets of rules that happen to catch what you want to do.

Four layers decide it

These four are written by different bodies, published on different websites, and none of them will mention the others. Check one, see “allowed”, and stop — and the other three may still say no.

Here is how that trap works in practice. In New South Wales, Australia, a backyard fire pit or barbecue needs no approval at all. That sounds like permission. But the same rules specify what may be used as fuel: dry seasoned wood, LPG, natural gas, and a small quantity of firelighter.

So: your fire pit is perfectly legal, and burning joss paper in it still is not compliant. Two separate questions.

How to check your own area

You do not need legal training. Four searches, about five minutes each.

1. Your municipal open-burning bylaw

Search [your city] open air burning bylaw or [your city] backyard burning rules. Look for two things: whether open fire is permitted, and which materials may be burned.

This is decided at city or council level, not nationally. The next town over can have entirely different rules. Searching for “Canada” or “Australia” will not give you an answer.

2. Your regional air quality authority

In the US, find your air quality management district. In Australia, your state EPA. In Canada, your municipality or regional district.

This layer asks what you may burn, not whether you may light a fire. In many places “general waste, including paper” is prohibited outright — which covers joss paper without ever naming it.

3. Seasonal fire bans

During drought or fire season, burning can be banned completely regardless of the rules the rest of the year. Search [your area] fire ban or burn ban.

This matters more than it sounds for offerings, because your dates are set by the lunar calendar — they will not politely avoid the dry season.

4. Your own building rules

Lease, strata, body corporate, HOA, balcony clauses. You cannot Google this one; you have to read your documents or ask your building manager.

Even if the first three layers allow it, this one can stop you — and in practice it is the layer that causes trouble fastest, because the person who complains lives next door.

What we found in four countries

Published information as of 31 August 2026. Rules change, and we are not lawyers — please still work through the four steps above for your own area.

Canada

Toronto: the Ontario Fire Code prohibits open air burning, and Toronto Fire does not issue permits for backyard open fires. The exception is a controlled wood fire used for cooking, extinguished once cooking is done.

Surrey, British Columbia: no backyard fires, fire pits, chimineas or open burning of any kind.

There is no national rule — it depends on your municipality.

United States

California: burning general waste, including paper and cardboard, is illegal and enforced by regional air quality management districts.

Note that this is not a question of whether open fire is permitted — burning paper is itself the prohibited act. That is layer two, and it is the one people miss.

Australia

New South Wales: burning vegetation and domestic waste in the open, or in an unauthorised incinerator, is prohibited across all council areas in the Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle regions, plus the other councils listed in Schedule 1 of the Clean Air Regulation.

Some councils can grant open burning approval. Fire pits and barbecues need no approval, but the fuel restriction described above still applies.

United Kingdom

The UK is genuinely different, and we will not pretend otherwise.

There is no law against having a bonfire. You may light one whenever and as often as you like.

What does apply is the Environmental Protection Act 1990: smoke, fumes or gases emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance are a statutory nuisance, and local authorities have a duty to investigate complaints.

Whether something counts as a nuisance turns on frequency, duration, locality and the actual effect on the person complaining. Once or twice a year is unlikely to qualify.

Separately, in a Smoke Control Area it is unlawful to emit smoke from the chimney of a private dwelling from unauthorised fuels.

So if you are in the UK, the answer is quite possibly: you can do this yourself. And if you can, you should — doing it with your own hands is better than paying anyone, including us.

If you cannot burn

Not being able to burn does not mean you cannot make an offering.

A photograph, a cup of tea, a stick of incense at home is accepted within the tradition itself; fire is not the requirement people assume it is. The tradition is considerably more flexible than the anxiety around it suggests.

And if you do want the burning done, that is what we exist for: our family shop in Hong Kong writes the packet with your names on it and burns it. Two photographs come back to you: the written packet, and the whole batch in front of the furnace.