Ritual life in Chinese folk religion revolves around sustaining a living relationship with ancestors and a wide pantheon of deities. Ancestor veneration is central: families burn incense and offer food, tea, and wine at ancestral altars, maintain ancestral tablets, and burn joss paper so that the departed are provided for in the other world. Tomb-sweeping, especially during Qingming, renews this bond through cleaning graves and presenting offerings. These practices express both gratitude and an expectation of ongoing guidance and protection from the ancestral line.

Alongside ancestors, household and local deities receive regular attention. Daily incense offerings may be made to gods associated with the home, such as the Kitchen God, as well as to earth and wealth deities. Temples dedicated to figures like Mazu, Guanyin, and other protective gods host worshippers who bring fruit, flowers, and other gifts, bow in reverence, and articulate petitions. Seasonal festivals often center on the “birthdays” or special days of these deities, marked by processions, communal offerings, and ritual performances that bind the community together around shared sacred figures.

Divination and communication with the unseen world form another important strand. Worshippers may consult fortune sticks or moon blocks in temples to seek guidance, treating the deity as an oracle who responds through these ritualized tools. Spirit mediumship is also practiced, with mediums entering trance states so that deities or spirits may speak, advise, or heal through them. Such practices underscore the conviction that the divine realm is not distant but can be approached for concrete counsel in times of uncertainty.

Life-cycle and seasonal rites give religious shape to the rhythms of existence. Birth, coming-of-age, marriage, and funeral ceremonies are framed by offerings to ancestors and deities, paper burning, and blessings that seek protection and auspiciousness at each threshold. New Year rituals honor the Kitchen God and other deities, while festivals such as the Ghost Festival focus on offerings for wandering spirits, ensuring that even the unclaimed dead are not forgotten. Mid-Autumn and harvest observances, with their moon worship and communal sacrifices, link human flourishing to cosmic and agricultural cycles.

Protective and healing practices complete this ritual landscape. Exorcistic rites, often led by ritual specialists or folk healers, aim to expel harmful influences and restore harmony. Talismans may be created and blessed for protection, and geomantic consultation (often associated with feng shui) is sought to align dwellings and graves with beneficial forces. Taken together, these diverse rituals express a continuous effort to negotiate balance between the human community, the ancestral dead, local spirits, and the great deities who preside over fortune and misfortune alike.