October 9, 2007
Pchum Ben
October 11th will be the commencement of a 15 day holiday in Cambodia. The 15 days are days to travel to temples around the country to leave food for the dead anscestors. This day is a Cambodian falls on the full moon and is a kind of All-Saints or Day of the Dead day. This is a time when the spirits of the dead anscestors walk the earth and the living can ease their suffering by offering them food to eat. On the 11th people will go to the temlple around 4am to offer food to the anscestors they do this in the dark because it is said that the spirits don't like the light. So they do have one thing right and what a way to bridge into sharing the gospel. Pray for our missionaries during this time that we would have opportunity to share with people and that our lights would shine brightly in the darkness.
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For Prachum Benda, did you visit a wat in the city?
Rather than being a general ceremony for all ancestors, don't the Cambodian people believe that Prachum Benda is specific to one type of soul?
While most living creatures are reincarnated at death, some suffer a different fate. That is, due to bad karma, some souls are not reincarnated but instead remain veritable prisoners of a hostile spirit world, a place of much suffering.
The 15-day Prachum period's purpose is focussed on assisting trapped souls in the unpleasant spirit world. The souls are freed provisionally in order to seek out their still-living family members.
On their side, family members meditate and pray at the local wat(s) in an effort to reduce the bad karma of their ancestors, thus enabling those same ancestors themselves to reincarnate and thus depart the torment of the spirit world.
Food offerings are linked to the ritual are similar to Chinese cheng meng celebrations--that are pious and joyful at the same time.
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