A fortnight to honor our Ancestors – Pitru Paksha

Today marks the beginning of the period dedicated to the remembrance and rituals for our ancestors.

The idea of honoring our ancestors can be seen in many cultures across the globe. Mexico's Day of the Dead blends indigenous Aztec beliefs with Catholic influences, welcoming returning souls with colorful altars, marigolds, and favorite foods. In East Asia, festivals such as Qingming in China, Obon in Japan, and Jesa memorial traditions in Korea involve practices such as grave-cleaning, incense, remembrance and food offerings.

But have you ever wondered why this practice is so important that many traditional cultures have a specific day or period dedicated to it?  When a person crosses over, why is there a need to perform any rituals for their veneration? Why are the dead so important in many cultures across the world? Interesting topic right.

The idea of honoring the ancestors in Hindu philosophy goes far beyond just rituals. It is based around the fact that we owe our ancestors our identity, knowledge, culture, values, stories, skills and much more. Think about it. We inherited languages we never invented, traditions we never created, recipes we never developed, stories we never lived, skills we learned from people who learned them from someone before them. Even the way we understand family, community and belonging has been shaped by those who came before us.

Honoring our ancestors is in fact expressing gratitude to them. The scriptures mention three Rinas: Deva Rina, Rishi Rina and Pitru Rina.

So, what do we owe the generations that came before us?

And the answer doesn't have to be only ritual.

It can be gratitude, remembrance, preservation, and passing something meaningful forward.

In traditional Hindu understanding, the Pitris are understood as ancestors who have passed from the physical realm. The rituals performed by their descendants are traditionally believed to support their onward journey and well-being in the ancestral realms.

Pitru Paksha is described in scriptural texts as a powerful time in which to honor and express gratitude to those who have come before us and left for us a legacy of their wisdom, protection, love, or material wealth. By Vedic tradition, “ancestors” refers specifically to parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. In practice, on Pitru Paksha many people also honor departed spouses, children, siblings, aunts and uncles, and parents-in-law as well as friends, neighbors, teachers, mentors, and even beloved animals that have left this world.

For me Pitru Paksha is ultimately a reminder that none of us exists in isolation. We are part of a long and unbroken chain of lives, choices, stories and sacrifices that began long before us.

For these few days, let us pause to remember those who came before us—not only to honor their memory, but to recognize the invisible threads that connect their lives to ours. And perhaps the most meaningful way to honor that legacy is to live our own lives with gratitude and awareness, while carrying something meaningful forward for those who will come after us.