PHNOM PENH -- Hundreds of Cambodians gathered at downtown’s Wat Langka pagoda early Tuesday to celebrate Pchum Ben, an annual 15-day festival honouring the dead.
Starting before dawn, families arrived with gifts of food and drink for the monks, for a chance to pray at the nearly 600-year-old temple.
Inside the pagoda's buildings, temples laden with whole fish, platters of vegetables, and rice awaited the monks.
Cambodians believe that by offering food to monks, they can transfer it to the spirits, said Phnamn Chandara, the pagoda's second-most senior monk.
"They offer the food to the monks ... and after they dedicate it to the souls," he said.
While Cambodia's state religion is Buddhism, many Cambodians continue to practice ancestor worship as well as animism in certain parts of the country.
Cambodian Buddhist monks enjoy their lunch during the Day of the Dead (Ancestors' Day), at a pagoda in Phnom Penh. (EPA photo)
Local residents light candles during a ceremony to celebrate Pchum Ben, or Ancestors' Day, at Krang Thnung Buddhist pagoda on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. (AP photo)
A Cambodian woman offers money to beggars during the Pchum Ben festival, Festival of Death, at a pagoda in Phnom Penh on Sept 29. (AFP photo)
Cambodians give offerings during the Day of the Dead (Ancestors' Day), at a pagoda in Phnom Penh. (EPA photo)
Cambodians pray to Buddhist monks during the first day of the Pchum Ben festival (Festival of Death) at a pagoda in Phnom Penh Sept 28. (AFP photo)
