To venerate someone or something is to feel and show deep respect for them, of a special kind: the respect you give to what is old, holy, or important to your family and history. It is stronger and warmer than 'respect', but cooler and more upward-looking than 'love'. You venerate ancestors, saints, sacred texts, old teachers, a great artist who has died. You do not venerate your classmate who is good at basketball — that would be admire.

Two things about how it is used. First, it is formal and rather bookish. In everyday Taiwanese English conversation you would say 'people really respect him' or 'people look up to him'; 'venerate' belongs to writing, to religion, to history books, and to a slightly ceremonial voice. Second, it usually describes what a whole group does over a long time, not a private feeling of one afternoon: 'In this village the tree is venerated', 'His memory is still venerated'. That is why the passive — 'is venerated' — is so common.

Age matters to this word. There is often a sense that time itself has earned the respect. This is exactly what your grandparents do at Qingming; English has no everyday word for that, so 'venerate' is the one writers reach for. Be aware it can carry a small critical edge in modern writing: 'we venerate these old ideas too much' suggests the respect has stopped being thought about.