I’ve recently been watching Reservation Dogs, a TV show that is about the life and culture of United States Indian reservations. The show depicts a strong relationship with the character’s ancestors in a very regular, everyday sort of way. Characters often pray, offer, talk to and recognize the spirits of their ancestors.
I was wondering: has a similar sort of ancestor relationship ever been present in Western religions? I’ve never learned about it in the Greek or Roman polytheistic traditions, and Christianity seems to prefer prayers to specific figures/saints rather than one’s ancestors. I know there is Christian All Saints Day, along with celebrations like Dia de los Muertos, but that relationship seems somewhat contained to those celebrations.
Finally, I’m vaguely familiar with ancestor worship in Eastern religions, but I’d love to learn more about it and how it compares.
Ps: sorry if the terms “Western” and “Eastern” religions are problematic, I’m unaware of alternatives.
In Ancient Greek and Rome there were practices one could consider ancestor worship. As u/Taleonas writes about here and u/Damasus222 mentions here, people who had done great deeds in the past, for example the founders of cities, could be worshipped as heroes after their deaths. In Rome the genius (spirit or perhaps guardian angel) of the (living) head of the household was worshipped, and was thought to have some kind of connection to the lares (household gods), and there were also Di Manes, the spirit of dead. This you can read about in these threads by u/tinyblondeduckling and this discussion by u/Alkibiades415