ancestral altar
Lineage veneration spot
An ancestral altar is a dedicated space in a home or temple where families honor deceased relatives through offerings, prayers, and rituals.
Common in East Asian, African, and Latin American traditions, these altars typically hold photographs, incense, food offerings, and meaningful objects: She lit incense at the ancestral altar on her grandmother's death anniversary.
The practice maintains connection between living and dead, treating ancestors as spiritual presences who can offer guidance or blessing.
- shrineSacred devotional place
- incenseAnger greatly, or aromatic resin
- offeringsThings presented or given
- departed soulsPeople who have died
- spiritsLiquor or apparitions
veneration · filial piety · tablets · candles · prayers · joss · ghost money · worship · lineage · memorial · ritual · deceased · heritage · family · sacred · reverence · burning · smoke
- altarscommunion table, ofrenda
- lakoufamily compound, main house, communal space, shared space, peristyle
ancestral altarstorage closet
Small room for belongings
junk drawer · kitchen table · workbench · office desk · living room
ancestral altargrave
Serious and worrying
gravesite · burial plot · tomb · mausoleum · cemetery plot
ancestral, ancestor, ancestors, ancestry, ancestress, altar, altars, altarpiece