Cambodia’s Pchum Ben Festival gets under way, Oct 2010
October 1, 2010 – 2:41 pm
Feeding the Ancestors: The Cambodian Pchum Ben Festival
The fifteenth day, of the tenth month, of the Khmer calendar marks the Pchum Ben festival. This is a time when the spirits of the dead ancestors walk the Earth. And the living can ease their suffering by offering them food to eat.
At four in the morning, nearly all of the residents of Phnom Penh gather at the temple with offerings of rice, which they toss on the ground, feeding the dead ancestors.
“Some of the ghosts have small mouths,” one man explains. “So we have to use special rice.”
Many of the people throw sticky rice, which, apparently is easier for the spirits to consume.
According to Buddhist beliefs, the lives that we live, after death, are predicated by the actions that we took when we were living. Minor infractions would be punished with small punishments, such as being an unattractive ghost or having a small mouth. With a small mouth, it is hard to eat. Other, more severe, punishments could include being crippled or having no mouth at all.
