Bonn Pchum Ben

Monday, September 21, 2009

Bonn Pchum Ben

Prachum Benda, Bonn Pchum Ben, Pchum Ben or Ancestors’ Day in Khmer society is the most important spiritual and religious event held by Cambodians around the 15th day of October every year. Exact date may vary depending on the lunar cycle. Pchum Ben can be roughly translated to “gathering and offering". Pchum means “gather” or “meeting” and Ben means “offering”. Pre- Pchum Ben events simply called Ben are sequentially held each day for 14 days before the main event - Pchum Ben, as Ben 1, Ben 2, Ben 3, etc. People take turn to sponsor or host each Ben until when everybody comes to celebrate Pchum Ben on the 15th day. Your action of sponsoring or hosting a Ben is called Kann Ben. Kann means “hosting” or “holding”. So Kann Ben means you host or sponsoring offering or serving activities. In Khmer ancient time, Pchum Ben festival lasted three months, ending on the fifteenth day of October each year.

Unlike Khmer New Year which is a traditional, cultural event and a national holiday in Cambodia, Pchum Ben is not only a traditional, cultural and national holiday, it is also religious and spiritual. Cambodians would do all they can to prepare for Pchum Ben several weeks before the event. They dress up with the best traditional clothing and jewelry they can afford. Families prepare to cook foods they think their passed away loved ones would like to eat. Though there are varieties of foods and cake, Nom Ansom – a long sticky rice cake with pork or banana inside wrapped with banana leave is the traditional cake of Pchum Ben. Every home would have Nom Ansom during Pchum Ben which signifies the festival tradition.

In Buddhism, Cambodians believe there are three different worlds of life – heaven (above), human (middle) and hell (below). For those who had done enough good deeds during their life time as a human being would either reincarnated in heaven or the human world depending how much good karma they did and those who had done bad things would be taken to hell to be punished until the individual spirit has served enough time and released. Since our loved ones were human, they could have done something bad either intentionally or un-intentionally when they were alive. So after they passed away, we don’t know where they are though we always hope they are in heaven or a peaceful and happy place. They can have been trapped in hell or became a Priad because of bad karma.

Depending on the degree of bad karma, some spirits became Priads. Priads are the most miserable of all spirits. They were depicted in pictures decorated at temples as the ugliest creatures. Some of them have a mouth as small as the hole of a sewing needle and some don’t even have a mouth to eat, as they can only receive sufferings. All Priads fear daylight and they can only wander around in the dark. That is the reason why on a Kann Ben day, people would wake up early in the morning around 4:00 am to toss small pieces of rice or foods in dark areas where Priads possibly are at a Buddhist temple, hoping those Priads can get their foods to eat before sunrise. This is called Boss Bay Ben – Offering by Tossing Rice.

All trapped spirits will be released on the Pchum Ben day to seek for their living loved ones and foods. To make it easy to understand, let’s say one of the trapped spirits is your father. He would go to the first Buddhist temple (Wat) the family used to go when he was alive to search for you, other living loved ones and foods. If he cannot find you at the first temple, he would then continue to find at other 6 different temples. If the spirit of your father still can’t find you and the offered foods, he will feel miserable, sad and hungry while other spirits are happy seeing their loved ones and having delicious foods. Your father would wait until dawn for you or other loved ones to offer him foods. He then has to be taken back to hell without foods for another year. In this case, the spirit is said to be very upset and angry.

In addition to the above, Cambodians believe those who have passed away regardless of where they are now will benefit from good deeds and offerings of their living loved ones. For example, the ritual results of your offering foods to Buddhist monks can be conveyed to help your father who is trapped in hell. It can either cut down the time he has to serve or even he can be released from hell. If your loved one is in heaven or a favorable place already, the results of your good deeds and offerings can extend his stay there. Also your offerings will spiritually benefit you and build your good karma when you pass away. Giving and offerings must be pure from your heart.