Ancestor Worship

[TeaDidikai]

Many traditions around the world have special practices that are designed to honor ancestors.

Does your tradition have such a practice? Do you personally?

Is there a special way you do so?

Is there a special date it is done on?  

[Vertigo_Kiwi]

Kemetics have a great sense of respect and honor for their ancestors, I wouldn't call it worship though. I know many have shrines for their ancestors, and offer them food or gifts, or even write letters to them. I don't follow any specific tradition, so I feel like it's okay that I don't honor my ancestors as other Kemetics do.

As long as I remember who my ancestors are and the stories that have been handed down, I feel like I'm honoring them. I just don't see the people in my family tree wanting food offerings or anything like that. Stories are more important to me than any other form of honoring them. Everyone in my family tells stories about ancestors. Even a distant cousin who died in 1934 is still talked about!  

[Deoridhe]

The Old Norse/Germanic tribes honored both ancestors and heros. In the traditional Sumbel found in some places, the first rounds went: Gods, Heros, Ancestors.

The Disir are the most regularly honored in the modern Asatru I've seen, especially on Mothernights (the first night of Yule). The Disir would be the female ancestral spirits, who are believed to remain with the family. Their means of "staying with" is tied into Hamingja, luck, which is both an individual and a family concept. There is some evidence that the Alfar, who live in Alfheim and have Frey as a quasi-ruler, are in part or wholly male ancestral spirits. While Disir are believed to be tied to the home, Alfar are usually connected with burial mounds.

As a modern feminist, I tend to honor both Disir and Alfar who are ancestral in the home.  

[TeaDidikai]

So I am getting together with a group of friends to remember our ancestors on Nov. 3rd.

A group of us will be putting together a large feast. The Menu and recipes can be found in my Journal.

In addition there will likely be an altar set with pictures, mementos, candles, flowers and offerings.

I think I will even set up a station where people can make images of things they wish for their Departed to have, and in a small informal ritual, welcome people to burn them and thus send them to their Ancestors. This was inspired in part by the funeral traditions of my heritage and in part by the Chinese style of Joss Paper known as Hell Notes here in the West.

It's a blend of my own traditions, and more common themes that allow for others to participate.  

[maenad nuri]

Yes, but...

I always wonder if my ancestors would really want to be remembered in the context of my religion. I'm much better at the abstract ancestors -- my devoutly Catholic grandmother probably wouldn't much like it.  

[TeaDidikai]

Nuri

Yes, but...

I always wonder if my ancestors would really want to be remembered in the context of my religion. I'm much better at the abstract ancestors -- my devoutly Catholic grandmother probably wouldn't much like it.

The Ancestors I honor specifically don’t mind.

Hey Nuri, have you tried asking her if she would mind?  

[Gornwen]

I think it is in part my ancestors who determine my religion...
a sort of trusting in their judgment over long periods of time.

My family, too, is very centered around honoring family memebers'
memory through telling stories about them and trying to learn from
what they have done, tried to do, or the like. Much of my own moral
code as well as my ambitions are formed by the stories I have heard
about my ancestors and my memories of them. My mother frequently
quotes her Grandmother. My Grandmoo tells the most wonderful stories.
Stories for my family (especially my mother's side!) are vital.

 

[TatteredAngel]

I heart my ancestors.

In all honesty, though, that's something of a new realization. My family has always been fairly clannish, and I've always been family-oriented. But it's only recently that I've started to have a real appreciation for the history involved.

I'd love to find some ways to incorporate that love and respect for my ancestors into my practice, but I haven't quite had anything gel with me yet.  

[Deoridhe]

Nuri

Yes, but...

I always wonder if my ancestors would really want to be remembered in the context of my religion. I'm much better at the abstract ancestors -- my devoutly Catholic grandmother probably wouldn't much like it.

The two Disir I honor I believe wouldn't mind; one was a member of the New Age Movement before it was called that, and the other, whom my mother knew, is simply very loving. It was Mom's opinion in the latter case that it would be ok.  

[TeaDidikai]

It comes to mind that one need not have a religious theme to one's Ancestor Festival.

Why not take a Secular approch?  

[TheDisreputableDog]

I'm kind of in the same boat as Kiwi--many of my Kemetic Orthodox friends have Akhu shrines, but I don't really have space and I don't know any of my ancestors so it's difficult to honor them specifically. We're supposed to offer them food, but unlike food offered to the gods we're not supposed to eat it afterwards and I've never really been clear on the procedures.

But I offer them water in general and I have a necklace that represents the Akhu that I wear sometimes.