Cambodian People to Celebrate Pchum Ben Festival This Weekend

“Pchum Ben” Festival or the Festival for the Dead, which is the second biggest festival for the Cambodian people in the entire country after the “Chaul Chhnam Thmei” (Khmer New Year), will be celebrated this weekend, from Sept. 24 to 26.

In fact, the whole festival lasts 15 days. During the first 14 days, called Kan Ben, people or villagers take turns to offer food to monks in nearby pagodas in hope that the offerings will reach the souls of their ancestors by virtue of the Buddhist monk sermons.

But the most important is the last day of the Pchum Ben, which fall this year on Sept. 25, on which all Cambodian Buddhist followers, the rich as well as the poor, manage to prepare food and other offerings for their visits to pagodas.

Despite the current low COVID-19 infections in the country, Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, has, in a recent voice message, called on all pagodas to comply well with the health safety rules, and his compatriots to adhere to the Three Dos, Three Don’ts measure and to get vaccinated against the pandemic.

Samdech Techo Hun Sen expressed hope that this year, there will be no risk of COVID-19 infections from the first day of Kan Ben to the Pchum Ben day.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press