PCHUM BEN FESTIVAL

PCHUM BEN FESTIVAL

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n the 15th day of the waxing moon during the tenth month of the Khmer calendar, called Pheaktrobotr, Cambodian Buddhists celebrate Bonn Pchum Ben _ the Festival of the Dead.

This celebration usually falls in the first half of September in the western calendar. This year it falls on September 17.​ But the festival does not just begin and end on one day. In fact, it lasts 15 days, each of which is called a day of Kan Ben. A Ben is an offering. During the first 14 days, people takes turns offering food to the monks of their local pagodas in the hope that their offering will reach the souls of their ancestors and friends by virtue of the monks' sermons. The word of Ben is derived from Sankrit pinda, or balls of rice to be offered to the souls of the dead. The tradition is an ancient one.

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nscriptions in stone left by King Yaçovarman (889-910) tell us that he built numerous monasteries during that period, and that pinda were offered on a monthly basis, not only to "abandoned souls" _souls with no family to make offerings to them _ but also to souls of combatants who had died for their country. All religions were banned during the genocidal Pol Pot regime (1975-79), and religious followers killed. Under its dark reign, the regime killed at least 28,000 Buddhist monks and destroyed 3,968 pagodas. Many former pagodas as well as mosques, churches and other sacred places were turned into prisons, torture rooms, pig farms or manure depots.​​ But after Cambodia found peace, the festival was revived, and today it is celebrated in 3,731 pagodas housing 50,873 monks across the country. The present-day Ben are balls of glutinous rice, cooked in coconut milk and mixed with various ingredients according to local customs.

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he way a Ben is held also differs slightly from locality to locality. The final day of Pchum Ben is the most important for all followers. On this day, all Khmer Buddhist followers, the rich as well as the poor, manage to prepare food and other offerings for their visit to a pagoda. On this day, at every pagoda around the country, the mass collection of offerings (Bens) is dedicated to the souls of ancestors. If this duty is ignored, it is believed that the soul is cursed and will haunt the neglectful descendents for the rest of the year. Each year, State and private company employees are given a one-day holiday to observe this vital duty. In the early morning of the last day of the Pchum Ben Festival, visitors can join the throngs at the pagodas and take photos of local people of all ages in traditional costume. Women especially, don their best traditional dress, and come wearing their silk Sampot Hol, Sampot Phamuong, embroidered blouses and scarves and bearing offerings, candles and incense sticks.

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um Onsam and sweet Num Korm (steamed cakes wrapped in banana leaves) are taken to pagodas during the festival to share among participants. Num Onsam is a kind of cylindrical cake of glutinous rice wrapped around a mixture of pork, salt and other ingredients. Num Korm is shaped like a pyramid and made of rice-flour and filled with a coconut and palm sugar mixture. Money raised among Buddhist followers and offered to monks _ on this occasion and during other cultural and social events _ goes towards the construction or renovation of it (temples) and community developments such as the construction of bridges and schools, tree planting projects, or as donations to needy families. Khmers believe that fraternal feelings are fostered with the exchange of food and Num Onsam and Num Korm cakes. This ensures that visitors to any pagoda during the Pchum Ben festival will be warmly welcomed and invited to taste these cakes and enjoy the festivities.

 

Khmer New Year

KHMER NEW YEAR

Traditionally, the Khmer usually celebrate their new-year days on the 13th of April and the festival lasts for three days:

The first day is known as Vara Maha Sankranta in Sanskrit-the day of the Almanac. The phrase means passage of the sun or planets from one sign in the heavens to another.
            The second day is known as Vara Vata in Pali. The phrase means the “normal day or time”.  It is an unimportant day of the festival.

            The third day is known as Vara Laung SaKa in khmer and Sanskrit. The words describe the counting of the sequence of year or eras. On the first day, usually the 13th of April, people of each family prepare festival paraphernalia. Those include a pair of Bay Sey1, a pair of Sla Thoa2, five incense sticks, five candles, a pair of bottles of perfume, five pieces of areca nuts, five betel leaves, drinks, traditional cultural cakes, and various kinds of fruit for greeting the New Year divinity. Each house is cleaned and at night decorated with oil lamps and colorful lantern or, in modern time with electric lights. The preparatory festival paraphernalia and food offerings are used to satisfy the divinity that will come to power.

The offerings are organized according to an ancient Khmer myth and legend known as “Samkranti Sot.” For example, if the divinity coming to power is known to consume blood offerings, each family will prepare something which symbolizes blood, like some red flowers or fruit for him/her. If another divinity is known to consume various kinds of offerings, like bean or sesame grains, they will offer him/her the real ones. The arrival of each divinity is forecast by a group of astrologers and publicized on the radio and television. Each family greets the divinity by lighting incense sticks and candles, spraying themselves or their possessions with perfume, chanting prayers, paying homage to God or to the Buddhist trinity, and listening to Pin Peat music on the radio. And at each Buddhist temple, Buddhist monks or chaplains bang the Gong. During the first day of the New Year Festival, Buddhists (especially the older generation), traditionally attend and congregate in a particular Buddhist temple to offer food to the Buddhist monks to ensure lives of happiness and prosperity, as well as for religious merit. They also chant prayers to the Buddhist monks and build sand stupa know as “Voluka Cetiya.” As for the young, they enjoy playing traditional games, such as Angkunh, Teanh Proat, and Caol Choung. During the second day and third day, the people enjoy different types of entertainment at the festival. They go out to resorts, attend Buddhist temple, or play traditional games.

Khmerchild