Pchum Ben, or Ancestors’ Day, is an annual 15-day celebration that follows the Khmer lunar calendar, usually taking place late September to mid October. This year, 2013, Pchum Ben falls from September 20th to October 4th. While festivities occur throughout this 15-day period, only the last three days are a public holiday, and the final day is the major celebration. Pchum Ben is unique to Cambodia, and is one of Cambodia’s most important Buddhist festivals. Many businesses will close as people migrate back to their home provinces to spend the holiday with their relatives.
According to legend,
“Phchum Ben came about because relatives of King Bath Pempeksa defied religious customs and ate rice before the monks did during a religious ritual. After their death, they became evil spirits. When a monk known as Kokak Sonthor gained enlightenment and became a Buddha on earth, all those evil spirits went to ask him, “When can we eat?” The Buddha said, “You have to wait for the next Buddha in the Kathakot Buddhist realm. In this realm, evil spirits cannot eat.” When the next monk, Kamanou, achieved enlightenment and became a Buddha, all the evil spirits came again to ask the same question, and he gave the same answer as the previous Buddha. Later, another monk, Kasakbour, achieved enlightenment and became a Buddha, and the hungry evil spirits again asked him the same question. The Buddha told them the same thing - to wait for the next Buddha. The final Buddha, Preah Samphot - also known also as Samanakkodom - said to the evil spirits, “Wait for your relative, King Bath Pempeksa, to offer merits and dedication. When the dedication is made, the food will be yours to eat.”
King Pempeksa finally made an offering, but he did not dedicate the offering to the spirits of his relatives. All the spirits that were related to him cried that night. And when King Bath Pempeksa went to the Valovan pagoda to visit the Buddha, he was told by the Buddha that, “All the spirits of your relatives are crying, demanding food. The spirits should get food in the realm of Kathakot. Although you offered food and did good deeds, you did not dedicate the food and good deeds to them.” So King Bath Pempeksa made another dedication and offering, and this time he dedicated the food and merits to his relatives. The evil spirits received the dedication and were finally reborn into paradise.”
Cambodians take great care to prepare sticky rice and other offerings, arranged in the most elaborate fashions (picture from khmerlovekhmerculture.blogspot.com)
And the legend has never died, Pchum Ben having been celebrated as long as collective memory can recall, every year dedicating offerings to bless the spirits of the dead. The dead relatives with bad karma can be trapped in the spirit world (hell), unable to be reincarnated. During Pchum Ben, though, the guardians of hell release these hungry ghosts to receive gifts of food and blessings from their living relatives. Cambodians can bring blessing to their deceased, trapped relatives in two ways: by transferring merit to the hungry ghosts through offering to the monks and by directly offering food by throwing sticky rice into the fields in the pagoda grounds.
Om Sam Ol, a monk at Steung Meanchey pagoda, explains more about the beliefs behind the festival: “During Pchum Ben, souls and spirits come to receive offerings from their living relatives. It is believed that some of the dead receive punishment for their sins and burn in hell - they suffer a lot and are tortured there,” he added. “Hell is far from people; those souls and spirits cannot see the sun; they have no clothes to wear, no food to eat. Pchum Ben is the period when those spirits receive offerings from their living relatives and perhaps gain some relief. Relatives consecrate and dedicate food and other offerings to them.”
People gather at the pagoda starting around 4am in order to have their offerings to their ancestors blessed. (picture from snappcambodia.com)
Traditionally, then, Pchum Ben is a holiday centered about religious rites at the pagodas. Every Buddhist will visit at least three pagodas during the 15-day period (the ideal number, however, is seven different pagodas) to pray for the souls of their dead relatives. Some people will have to travel very far to visit the pagoda where their dead relatives are most likely to visit, so the pagodas open their doors to allow travelers to sleep at the temples. If the living relatives do not make the appropriate offerings, some believe that the hungry ghosts will curse them in the following year; conversely, if the hungry ghosts are appeased, the living relatives will be blessed with happiness and success. On the final day of the holiday, the hungry ghosts are ordered to return to their prison to wait until the next Pchum Ben.
After the elaborate dishes are blessed, Cambodians parade around the main temple, stopping at each spirit house to drop a portion of the rice and other offerings and to say a quick prayer. Between spirit houses, they will throw some of the sticky rice over the temple railing and out into the field as a direct transfer to the hungry ghosts. (picture from cam111.com)
*quoted text from www.tourismcambodia.com
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