ancestral veneration
Ancestral veneration is the traditional act of blessing the hardships of forgotten great-grandparents while barely lifting a finger, occasionally offering tea at an ancestral altar. Literally it might be described as a system for thanking one’s bloodline insurance. The ancestors whose posthumous reputations depend on rituals must be frustrated by their lack of a time machine. The more elaborate the ceremony the more conspicuous its convenience, providing the invisible foundation for modern self-satisfaction.