If not, what divides religion and superstition?
While superstition is mere empty ritual, religion has a moral dimension as well as a belief in the afterlife. Buddhism is still called a religion because it promotes belief in reincarnation ie an afterlife although technically it is an atheist philosophy.
Chinese ancestor worship is about the worship of one's ancestors and one's status as a worshipped ancestor (desirable) as opposed to being a hungry ghost (undesirable). Its real purpose was to make married couples have large families, to produce sons to be cannon fodder and the labour force of the next generation to sustain the empire that is China. Because having children is so expensive and inconvenient, the religion of Chinese ancestor worship was created to shame the living into aspiring to be married parents with plenty of male descendants to worship their ancestors. Shame and fear was used to motivate the Chinese into the undertaking of becoming married parents and having an heir and a spare to keep China going as a running concern, despite invasions, famine, pestilence and civil war.
By such ideas are civilisations created and sustained and we are the beneficiaries. The next generation will not be so lucky.
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