1.   During the festival of Obon, Japanese show respect to their dead ancestors.

2.   Here, in communities like Soweto and Vosloorus, grandmothers pray to dead ancestors, who are believed to watch the living from the spirit world.

3.   Shinto Shintoists, practitioners of the Japanese religious tradition, regard death as a curse but revere dead ancestors as kami, or sacred spirits.

4.   They select quartz stones for the shrine to represent each dead ancestor.

5.   Certain ceremonies, including eternal marriage and proxy baptisms for dead ancestors, can only be performed in more sacred temple buildings.

6.   Monday is the Ching Ming, or grave-sweeping festival, when Taiwanese visit cemeteries to clean tombstones and make offerings to dead ancestors.

7.   They say that families can be reunited after death, and they research their genealogies to find dead ancestors who can be baptized retroactively.