How To Work With Your Ancestor As A Spiritual Practice

Whether you're a first-generation Latina or a fourth-generation Latina, there's a common challenge that all Latinas confront while trying to connect with their ancestors. Assimilation, to be precise. Our families who moved to the United States had to live by conforming to “American culture” through assimilation. That means speaking less Spanish and more frequently engaging in American cultural practices, among other things. Leaving only fractured access to our past.

When you decide to figure out your history, let alone acknowledge the past of your lineages, it can be confusing, isolated, and lonely. When trying to trace your ancestry, there isn't often much to go on for a variety of reasons. But don't get too worked up over it. Recognizing the past simply means paying respect to the ground you share and the place your forefathers traversed. You can then expand your family tree, take a DNA test, and request oral histories be shared with you.

All you have to do now is begin to acknowledge your family's history. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all present. It's as awful as it sounds.

Don't be Afraid to Talk to the Dead

Decolonizing our attitude should be considered in order to begin connecting with your ancestors. As people of color, we have been severely brainwashed with fear. Many people are afraid of communicating to the dead or working with the dead.

Maybe you didn't want to talk to the dead because you didn't want to be labeled “mad,” because mental health is already stigmatized in Latinx society. Perhaps you grew raised in a colonized religious family where interacting with spirits was frowned upon. Fear must be let go of.

How? Work through the colonized religion and machismo culture-based internalized narratives that are within you. Speaking with the dead is a manifestation of feminine energy. Intuition, receptivity, and stillness are all aspects of this state. To further reinforce patriarchal control and toxic masculinity, we were trained to condemn and disregard certain behaviors.

What is it called when you worship your ancestors?

The worship of the dead, including one's ancestors, is motivated by love and respect for those who have passed away. It is linked to beliefs in some cultures that the deceased have a continuing existence and may be able to influence the fortunes of the living. Some people hold their immediate forebears in high regard. Saints are venerated as intercessors with God by certain sects and religions, particularly the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church; the latter also believes in intercession for departed souls in Purgatory. Other religious groups, on the other hand, regard the veneration of the deceased as idolatry and a sin.

The purpose of ancestor veneration in European, Asian, Oceanian, African, and Afro-diasporic cultures is to assure the ancestors' continuous well-being and favorable attitude toward the living, and sometimes to ask for specific favors or aid. Ancestral veneration serves a social or non-religious purpose in cultivating familial qualities such as filial piety, family loyalty, and family lineage continuation. Ancestor veneration exists in communities of all social, political, and technological complexity levels, and it is still a significant part of many religious traditions today.

What is the practice of ancestor worship?

Ancestor worship refers to rituals performed to honor and venerate the spirits of one's ancestors who have passed away. Ancestor worship transcends religious traditions, geographical locations, and social divisions, and is commonly associated with the Confucian concept of filial piety. It is one of the oldest and most influential parts of Chinese religious culture, dating back to the Neolithic period. In the Shang-dynasty oracle bone inscriptions, the oldest surviving writings written in Chinese, sacrifices are made to appease the spirits of the ancestors. In early China, these customs flourished, and imperial ancestor worship was eventually adopted into the official state religion. New types of ancestor worship rites, such as the Buddhist Ghost Festival (yulanpen,) and its Daoist equivalent (zhongyuan,) flourished as the organized faiths of Buddhism and Daoism grew. Ancestor worship traditions could be found at all levels of Chinese society by the end of the Song dynasty, following the Neo-Confucian reformation of domestic rites. These are still being conducted in the early twenty-first century in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, as well as among foreign communities in Southeast Asia and North America. The worship of individual-lineage ancestors, which entails the presentation of ritual offerings to their tablets or images at the household altar, (2) the collective veneration of ancestors and, most importantly, the founder of the lineage, at the ancestral hall, and (3) communal rituals dedicated to the worship of the ancestors, which also take place at the grave on specific dates, such as the Qingming () an annual festival. The ancestor religion has piqued the interest of Chinese scholars due to its long history and cultural significance. Most of the study done throughout the twentieth century was done by anthropologists, who placed ancestor worship in the larger context of the kinship system and lineage structure, following the early records of ancestor worship activities published by Christian missionaries. Scholars in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have attempted to expand on these seminal studies: archaeologists and art historians examine the material objects associated with the ancestor cult, historians use textual sources to investigate its various manifestations and sociocultural implications, and ethnographers provide new accounts of the various ancestor worship practices among ethnic minorities groups in the mainland and overseas Chinese communities.

How do you honor your ancestors?

The simplest approach to honor ancestors is to place a photograph of them next to a glass of water and a white candle, and talk to them or say their favorite prayers. You can also include any foods or beverages that they appreciated. There are no right or incorrect ways to pay tribute to people who have died.