A Pitra Paksh ritual to connect with your ancestors

Every year, in the dark fortnight before Navratri, Hindu families set aside time to remember and honour their ancestors. This is Pitra Paksh, the "fortnight of the ancestors". It is a time for gratitude, for prayer, and, I believe, for healing the patterns we have inherited.

What is Pitra Paksh?

Pitra Paksh (also written Pitru Paksha) is a sixteen-day period in the lunar month of Bhadrapada. Families offer food, water and prayers to their pitru, the ancestors, often through shraddha and tarpan. The last day, Sarva Pitru Amavasya, is considered the most important: on this new moon, all ancestors are remembered, including those whose dates we don't know.

Our ancestors gave us more than our names. Along with their blessings and strengths, some of us also carry their unfinished stories: fears, struggles with money or relationships, patterns that repeat across generations. Pitra Paksh is a natural time to acknowledge both.

The ritual: release, shift and act

Here is a simple ritual you can do on the last day of Pitra Paksh.

1. Burn to release. Write down what you no longer want to carry: a fear, a habit, a pattern you recognise in your family. Safely burn the paper, with the intention of releasing it with respect and gratitude.
2. Journal to shift your energy. On a fresh page, write what you want to welcome in its place. Write it as an affirmation, in the present tense.
3. Take action. This is the most important part. A ritual is not only the burning or the writing. It is the action you take afterwards that shifts things. Choose one small, real step you will take this week.

Always light a lamp, keep a little water nearby and stay present. If your family has its own Pitra Paksh traditions, do this alongside them, not instead.

Carrying it into Navratri

Pitra Paksh leads straight into Navratri, nine nights of the Goddess. A practice I love is to work with nine negatives and nine positives: recognise nine patterns you want to let go of, and nine qualities you want to grow, and give each day of Navratri one theme. Recognise it, take a corrective action, and repeat for nine days.

Done sincerely, it is a powerful way to meet a new version of yourself, with Maa Durga's blessings. Do it to believe it.

In the video above I walk through the ritual step by step.

A gentle note

This is a spiritual practice for reflection and healing. Please follow your family's customs for formal rites like shraddha, and use fire safely.

If you'd like support

If you sense a pattern running through your family and would like to understand it, we can explore it together. In a one-to-one session we can look at whether there is an ancestral pattern, and how to heal it and receive the gifts your ancestors left you. Book a session or send me a message. If you'd like help writing your affirmations, just ask.