Pchum Ben

This weekend sees the climax of Pchum Ben, a Cambodian festival that remembers the dead. The festival lasts for 15 days where families visit Pagodas (place of worship) across Cambodia to make offerings of food to the chanting monks. It comes to a climax in the final 3 days, this year on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of October.

Offering food to the monks in turn feeds the ghosts of the dead and benefits any deceased family member. The ghosts of the dead are the souls that have been sent to hell for how they lived their previous life, they are able to be free for one day when the gates of hell open up. Occasionally families will throw balls of rice around the fields of the Pagoda in hope of feeding these ghosts directly, rather than through the monks.