Definitions for "Ancestor Worship"
Keywords:  veneration, kin, worship, ritual, dead
Religious practices based upon the doctrine of veneration of the dead, normally along familial lines.
In ancient China, the idea that after death, a person became deified. This enabled them to watch over their living descendants and to intercede for them with more powerful divine beings. The living worshiped them, usually at a household shrine, to show their respect for them.
The veneration or worship of deceased people by their living kin. It exists, sometimes integrated as part of a world religion, in about 60% of the world's cultures.