Where it is celebrated:
Focus of celebration:
When it happens:
How it’s celebrated:
What is unique about its aesthetic/look?
- Pchum Ben is considered unique to Cambodia, however, there are merit-transference ceremonies that can be closely compared to it in Sri Lanka (i.e., benefitting the ghosts of the dead), and, in its broad outlines, it even resembles the Taiwanese Ghost Festival .
Focus of celebration:
- The day is a time when many Cambodians pay their respects to deceased relatives of up to 7 generations.
When it happens:
- Pchum Ben (Khmer: បុណ្យភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ; "Ancestors' Day") is a 15-day Cambodian religious festival, culminating in celebrations on the 15th day of the tenth month in the Khmer calendar, at the end of the Buddhist lent, Vassa.
- In 2013, the national holiday fell on October 3rd-5th in the Gregorian calendar, the 2015 season began on September 23rd and ends on October 12th.
How it’s celebrated:
- The day is a time when many Cambodians pay their respects to deceased relatives of up to 7 generations. Monks chant the suttas in Pali language overnight (continuously, without sleeping)
- In temples adhering to canonical protocol, the offering of food itself is made from the laypeople to the (living) Buddhist monks, thus generating "merit" that indirectly benefits the dead; however, in many temples, this is either accompanied by or superseded by food offerings that are imagined to directly transfer from the living to the dead, such as rice-balls thrown through the air, or rice thrown into an empty field.
What is unique about its aesthetic/look?
- The short version:
- formal ceremonies, symbolic food offerings (such as rice balls called bay ben), individual and communal rituals, focus on respect and remembrance, very inclusive.
- The longer description:
- During Pchum Ben, very early in the mornings, people cook rice and, in the palm of their hands, form rice balls called bay ben. Before dawn, they bring these bay ben, along with other offerings, to the pagoda. There, they take part in a ceremony performed by the monks at the pagoda’s main building (the vihira) to convene the souls of the deceased. At a certain point in the ceremony, the participants circle the Vihira three times, scattering the bay ben onto the ground. After the procession, some of the people return inside and join the monks’ chanting. Others remain outdoors in the temple compound, lighting incense and placing rice balls and other offerings to the prett (the damned); the deceased who have no neighbors, friends, or families to commemorate them; and to those whose families cannot attend. On the last day, Pchum Ben culminates with the bay ben being gathered together to form a collective offering.