The Cambodian Festival of Pchum Ben

We're coming to the end of the annual Festival of Pchum Benh. Most Cambodians will have had a few days off and have headed out to the country side to visit their relatives both alive and 'dead'. Many, many businesses and shops in the city close.

Prachum Benda ("Ancestors' Day"), more commonly known as Pchum Ben, is a Cambodian religious festival

On one main day, Ancestors Day, most Cambodians pay their respects to deceased relatives. People cook meals for monks, bring offerings to the temple and throw rice near the temple early in the morning, believing that their ancestors will receive it. Cambodians believe that although most living creatures are reincarnated at death, due to bad karma, some souls are not reincarnated but rather remain trapped in the spirit world. Each year, for fifteen days, these souls are released from the spirit world to search for their living relatives, and to meditate and repent. Ancestors' Day is a time for living relatives to remember their ancestors and offer food to those unfortunate enough to have become trapped in the spirit world. Furthermore, 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.
Participating in the Pchum Ben, whether as a host or participant, is a very important aspect of Cambodian culture. It is a time of reunion and commemoration. It is a time to express love and appreciation for one's ancestors.

Thus, one can then begin to sense the problems Pchum Ben brings to new Khmei Christians. Non-Christian relatives can become unpleasant, even aggressive at their perceived betrayal of faith, family and culture and dead relatives. It seems the young Christain men receive strongest opposition and persecution. One young Christian man, Sotean, was made to leave his family home because of his brother's objections and insistence that it is either Christianity or his family. He has left home and for that I believe God will honour him. The leaders of our church pray with our young Khmei Christians at the onset of the festival trusting God will protect and guide them and use their new lives as a witness. I have great admiration for these young Cambodian people who have made the decision for a new life in Christ.