ancestor worship
noun
: the custom of venerating deceased ancestors who are considered still a part of the family and whose spirits are believed to have the power to intervene in the affairs of the living
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web The three-day holiday is moored in sacred rituals centered on ancestor worship, such as the jesa ceremony, which is believed to strengthen the bond between the living and the deceased. 
Washington Post, 21 Jan. 2022 Their ancestors, who were once patronizingly spoken of as animists, took up residence in hollows in the cliffs to preserve their way of life, replete with traditions of ancestor worship and a complex cosmology. Howard W. French, The New York Review of Books, 14 May 2020 These range from visiting temples, attending pilgrimages and festivals, praying and offering incense, ancestor worship, and veneration of various celestial divinities. Mario Poceski, The Conversation, 6 Aug. 2021 The holiday has deep links to South Korea’s agricultural past and its custom of ancestor worship. Jun Michael Park, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2020 Perhaps this year a different story will take hold, replacing ancestor worship with a more clear-eyed view of the past. Peter C. Mancall, The Conversation, 4 Sep. 2020 The cosmology of spirits in Thailand — a Buddhist-majority nation with crosscurrents of Hinduism, Chinese ancestor worship, and animism — is vast. Adam Dean, BostonGlobe.com, 13 June 2020 Due to its color, shape, and symbolic importance, many believe the dish symbolizes the earth, and it is often used as an offering on ancestor worship altars. NBC News, 25 Jan. 2020 Those Jesuit scientist-adventurers reported to Rome that China was a brilliant civilisation whose traditions of ancestor worship and Confucian ethics were not pagan religious rites, but customs compatible with Christian monotheism. The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019 See More
Washington Post, 21 Jan. 2022 Their ancestors, who were once patronizingly spoken of as animists, took up residence in hollows in the cliffs to preserve their way of life, replete with traditions of ancestor worship and a complex cosmology. Howard W. French, The New York Review of Books, 14 May 2020 These range from visiting temples, attending pilgrimages and festivals, praying and offering incense, ancestor worship, and veneration of various celestial divinities. Mario Poceski, The Conversation, 6 Aug. 2021 The holiday has deep links to South Korea’s agricultural past and its custom of ancestor worship. Jun Michael Park, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2020 Perhaps this year a different story will take hold, replacing ancestor worship with a more clear-eyed view of the past. Peter C. Mancall, The Conversation, 4 Sep. 2020 The cosmology of spirits in Thailand — a Buddhist-majority nation with crosscurrents of Hinduism, Chinese ancestor worship, and animism — is vast. Adam Dean, BostonGlobe.com, 13 June 2020 Due to its color, shape, and symbolic importance, many believe the dish symbolizes the earth, and it is often used as an offering on ancestor worship altars. NBC News, 25 Jan. 2020 Those Jesuit scientist-adventurers reported to Rome that China was a brilliant civilisation whose traditions of ancestor worship and Confucian ethics were not pagan religious rites, but customs compatible with Christian monotheism. The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019 See More Word History
First Known Use
1829, in the meaning defined above