Kan Ben and Pchum Ben Festivals Suspended

The Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to suspend the celebrations of Kan Ben and Pchum Ben Festivals to contain and prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially the fast-spreading Delta variant.

According to a Royal Government’s statement released last night, the Kan Ben and Pchum Ben Festivals must be suspended from Sept. 25 or the 4th day of Kan Ben until the Pchum Ben Day.

Anyway, the annual three-day holiday of Pchum Ben Festival will remain effective, it underlined.

All municipal and provincial administrations are also advised to ensure that all pagodas have foods and other necessary stuff during this period.

The statement explained that the suspension is based on the necessity to continue managing the COVID-19 spread, particularly to protect people’s lives and health while the country is reopening schools and making plans to reopen the country in the future.

New cases of COVID-19 were detected in two pagodas in Phnom Penh on the first day of Kan Ben Festival.

Cambodians started the two-week-long Kan Ben Festival on Sept. 22 in the pagodas throughout the country. Kan Ben is part of “Pchum Ben” Festival or the Festival for the Dead, one of the biggest festivals in Buddhism, which falls on the fifteenth day of Kan Ben, or on Oct. 6 this year. During this 15-day religious event, people take turns to offer food to monks at pagoda in hope that the offerings will reach the souls of their ancestors by virtue of the Buddhist monk sermons.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press