Remembering Rituals: The Sacred Act of Offering

There is something achingly beautiful about a hand outstretched, not to take, but to give.

To offer.

Long before temples, before religions had names or holy books were written, we were offering. Pebbles placed at the foot of a tree. Water poured onto soil. Smoke rising from fire. Bread torn and left for the birds. A lock of hair. A first fruit. A song.

Across time and across cultures, the ritual of offering has been one of the most universal expressions of reverence, of remembrance, of relationship. No matter where we come from, we come from peoples who knew how to give back. And in a world that teaches us to measure life by what we get, this remembering might just save us.

Offerings Around the World

Bali – Canang Sari

Tiny palm leaf baskets filled with flowers, rice, incense, and intention. Placed daily on sidewalks, shrines, rivers, thresholds. In Bali, offering is not a performance—it is breath. A moment of pausing to acknowledge the spirits, ancestors, the land itself. A practice of harmony.

West Africa – Libation Pouring

Water or alcohol poured to the earth while calling on ancestors by name. A way of inviting them in, remembering they walk with us still. Acknowledging that the seen and unseen are always in relationship.

Andes – Coca Leaf Offering (Despacho)

Coca leaves, sugar, beans, flowers arranged into a mandala-like bundle—an offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth). A sacred gesture of gratitude, reciprocity, and alignment with natural balance.

Turtle Island – Tobacco Ties & Medicine Offerings

In many Indigenous nations across North America, offerings of tobacco, sage, sweetgrass, or cedar are made to the land, water, and ancestors. Before taking anything—be it a plant, a hunt, or a teaching—an offering is made in humility and respect.

Japan – Osōnae

Offerings placed at home altars (butsudan) and graves: rice, water, incense, favorite foods. Ancestors are not past—they are part of daily life. The offering is a way to honour that continuity.

Christianity – Votive Candles & Tithes

Lighting a candle, placing money in a box, offering bread and wine. Symbolic acts of surrender, faith, and trust. Though often institutionalized, the root remains: giving something back to the divine.

Rastafarian Ital – Food Sharing

Though not called offerings, the sharing of ital (pure, life-giving food) with others, especially elders and children, is an act of honour. The divine is in the body and the earth, and to share food is to honour both.

Hinduism – Puja Offerings

Fruits, flowers, incense, milk, flame—each offered to the deity during puja. Not to beg for favors, but to honour presence. The offering becomes sacred through intention and devotion.

Buddhism – Alms and Rice Offerings

In Theravāda traditions, laypeople offer food to monks daily. A cycle of mutual support. Monastics offer teachings and presence. Laypeople offer sustenance. This circle of giving dissolves hierarchy.

Philippines – Atang

In Filipino tradition, food is placed at the altar or gravesite to nourish the spirits. Sometimes the food is untouched, sometimes shared after. Always an act of remembrance and hospitality.

Ancient Greece – Libations and Sacrifice

Wine poured on the ground, grains cast into fire, animals sacrificed. While often misunderstood through modern eyes, these acts were about restoring cosmic order—offering something of value to remain in right relationship with the gods.

What All Offerings Share

Despite the diversity of forms, what these practices share is even more powerful:

• A recognition that we are not alone.

  
  

  That there are forces, beings, ancestors, elements, beyond us—and with us.

• A spirit of reciprocity.

  
  

  Offerings are not payment. They are relationship. A giving that acknowledges all we receive.

• The sacred made ordinary.

  
  

  Flowers, water, incense, rice—daily things become holy through intention.

• A slowing down.

  
  

  To make an offering is to pause, to remember, to step outside of the rush and into reverence.

• Humility.

  
  

We are not the center of the universe. We are part of a web. And the offering is our way of saying thank you.

What This Says About Us All

What does this ancient practice say about what matters to us as human beings?

That deep down, we long for connection.

That we ache to be in right relationship—with the land, with our ancestors, with Spirit.

That we carry in us a memory of belonging, and the act of offering keeps that memory alive.

That it is not accumulation that fulfills us, but the act of giving, of participating in the sacred dance of exchange.

That we know, even if we forget, that everything we have was first given.

Reweaving the Practice

In the modern world, the ritual of offering may have fallen away—but it lives in us still. A flower left on a windowsill. A prayer whispered at dawn. A meal cooked with love and no agenda. A song sung to the wind.

You can begin again. Right now.

Offer a stone. A sip of water. A breath.

Place it with care. Speak from your heart. Let the unseen know: I remember.

Because to offer is to belong.