Ancestor Veneration as a Global UX Problem: Why We Keep Designing Doors Back to the Dead
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I’ve been stuck on this weird thread in my head: why do so many cultures independently build rituals around the dead? Not just burying them, but literally making a path back for them.
In China, there’s joss paper, Qingming offerings, family altars. In Japan, Obon is about inviting spirits home. In Mexico, Día de los Muertos is more playful—marigolds, sugar skulls, parties. Even in a lot of Western traditions, I’ve noticed the same shape: graves get flowers, names get repeated, photos get kept visible.
At first I thought, okay, this is religion doing its thing. Then I started comparing it like a design brief. The “user” isn’t only the living. The ritual is a system for memory, grief, identity, and continuity. If you remove the ritual, the ancestor becomes just a name in a database. If you keep it, the ancestor becomes a kind of interface between past and present.
That’s where I get overthinking. I keep asking: are we talking to the dead, or are we talking to ourselves? Honestly, I think it’s both. Jung made a lot of sense to me when I read about archetypes—not because I’m a psych expert, but because the idea that some patterns repeat across cultures feels real. Ancestor veneration might be one of those patterns: a way humans handle mortality without turning into total strangers to their own history.
Tarot has been sneaking into this too. The Hermit feels relevant here, because that card is about inner guidance, not flashy answers. And the Death card? Not literal death. It’s transition. Ancestor rituals are basically saying: death is not a hard delete. It’s a reorganization.
My favorite part is Día de los Muertos, because it shows that ancestor veneration doesn’t have to be solemn to be meaningful. You can laugh, decorate, eat, and still say: you mattered. You shaped me. You’re part of my lineage.
I’m still not fully sure what I believe about the metaphysical side. But as a designer, I see it as one of the oldest human systems for making sense of loss. And maybe that’s enough.
What traditions have you seen that made you think, “oh, this is how they keep the dead close”?
(There's a deeper dive on this in our wiki: Zi Wei Dou Shu: The Purple Star Astrology of China | Mystic Wiki.)
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