Often China & Japan Related.
Goofball asked me to explain my Offerings For Ancestors photograph. As there is not a glut of information on the internet about Cambodian holidays and observances, I feel like I probably should explain.
This year my surrogate Massachusetts family, who are Cambodian, celebrated Pchum Ben, which is the final day of the larger festival called Prachum Benda. Basically it is fifteen days of gatherings to make offerings. This is typically done at temples and the final day of is called Pchum Ben. According to the Khmer Institute, “it is an important opportunity for living relatives to meditate and pray to help reduce the bad karma of their ancestors, thus enabling the ancestors to become reincarnated and leave the torment and misery of the spirit world.”
This year we spent Friday night at the house preparing offerings and gifts for the monks who were coming to the house the next morning, ancestors and lastly for guests. On Saturday morning from 9:00 in the morning until noon, the monks came, sat, chatted and then chanted a lot. As I do not speak Cambodian, I was honestly a little lost. But, chanting is chanting and I can only imagine that a lot of the chants had to do with blessing and remembering ancestors. After a lot of chanting and the Offerings for the ancestors catching on fire because no one was watching, we all made an offering of rice to each of the monks and then to our own ancestors. Then we were all blessed by the monks. It ended promptly at noon as Cambodian monks only eat twice per day and both times are before 12.
Interestingly, some descriptions of this holiday describes it as “Feeding the Ancestors” and note that you have to use special rice because “some ghosts have small mouths.”
Not my Grandpa. Actually, probably not any member of my family, ever.