Around 1825, Wu Zhufang, assistant sub-prefect of Ilan, then known as Kavalan, provided this vivid description of the offerings, water lanterns and qianggu in the poem "Zhongyuan at Lancheng": "Sacrificial goods are piled up at the banquet, / Smoke rises from the burning spirit money; / The city is filled with incense-bearing crowds, / And songs rise up to the moonlit skies.
清道光五、六年（西元 1825 年），噶瑪蘭通判烏竹芳，在題為〈蘭城慶中元〉的詩中，對祭拜、放水燈、搶孤諸活動，曾經留下這樣生動的描述：殽果層層列此筵，紙錢焚處起雲煙；