Paying homage to ancestors is since the times of primitive men.
Primitive men worshipped the sun, stars and the elements of nature.

As human civilization grew different religions laid down some rules and conditions for better living individually and collectively.
One such of the many as commonly found in several religions is a day/night or few days kept reserved for worshipping ancestors.

In alignment with their beliefs and accessibility, each religion suggested activities to be carried out on the days reserved through fasting, prayers offering food etc
Over time as it passed down to further generations it emerged as rituals/practices which was blindly followed.

Though some of the rituals are dogmatically followed and carried forward as a tradition by many even today there are people spiritually inclined who with some awareness pursue it with faith to restore its essence.

In spiritual parlance, it is akin to reverence and praying for the peace of ancestors, it is recognised as Ancestral healing  by spiritual modality practitioners

It is more of a misnomer when we say ancestral healing…
As it is more of self-healing that is attained through the practices undertaken for the peace and reverence to ancestors…

The reason being technically speaking ancestors who are in the spirit are more so gone and on another side…wouldn’t require any healing.
It is their unfinished business, unfulfillment, longing and attachment to those in their family in the here and now that keeps the transmission of the same that shows up as repetitive patterns that run through families.

These repetitive patterns could be restrictive and sabotaging at the level of health, relationships, and financial blocks, thereby practices done with awareness connects the doer and his/her family to bring peace with their ancestors i.e spirit world, as much as to the present and future generations.

There is a dilemma if these rituals have any scientific basis:
This gets explained through the science of epigenetics and how we respond to our generic inheritance of attributes, beliefs and behaviour patterns.
The fact that each of us carries traits attributed to beliefs and thought patterns in our DNA which are passed down to us through our ancestors …just as we too pass on further to future generations.

“We are what we are not just  by what we see in our external reality but what we carry in each one of us through the genes in our DNA”

What we feel and believe about what we carry as our traits activates the corresponding gene to either impact us in a large way or remain dormant and insignificant.

We unconsciously imbibe in what our ancestors think feel and believe which becomes patterns of behaviour through our conditioning.

Hence when there are deeply embedded stuck in patterns in our different aspects of life getting conscious of what we carry from ancestors is the doorway to go beyond. what we are genetically wired

Pitrupaksha and similar rituals had been designed to pray for peace and well-being of the ancestors who may have died with some unfinished business in any area of life or an unfulfilled life.
In those days of war famine and such disasters were quite possible food and some basic necessities were a vital element to be part of the well-being .and fulfilment which gets carried forward via rituals.
Today’s mere ritualistic way may not be sufficient to mitigate the unresolved and unprocessed baggage from our ancestors. Modern man needs to  be more conscious  with  awareness of the unfinished business with the ancestors
Hence working within one’s inner space with any unfinished business or unprocessed emotions of ancestors goes a large way in healing oneself as the one who is working with emotions and thoughts can get conscious and bring an end to unconscious sabotaging traits n thought patterns carried forward through generation.
It works two ways as much as bringing peace in the spiritual realm for ancestors while it opens the doorway to unleash all that is held back by way of limiting beliefs, sabotaging behaviour with the unfulfilled ending of the ancestor’s life

In today’s time, we are fortunate to have access to this realm of ancestor’s mental states with their unprocessed thought and unresolved emotions impacting the current reality of the present generation through Ancestral healing via Hypnotherapy, Transpersonal regression therapy and the Family constellation route.

Different modalities mentioned above have the potential to free the current stuck reality of the present generation from the ancestral burden and open to their blessings and positive vibes.