It is P'Chum Ben. This is one of the many festivals here. P'Chum Ben is a Buddhist festival; so there are calls from the Wat at 3am each morning to wake us up. Everyone has an allocated time they go to the Wat to give an offering. Food is also left out as this festival means feeding the spirits. So even if the spirits are bad this is their one time a year to get fed!
We went to one of the offering ceremonies last week. It was very serene and festive - bit like a Christmas. Firstly we had incense and lotus flower presentations, then the monks were led in and given ice and water (we got water - no ice). There followed a lovely chanting which we could not really take part in but which was quite magical. The monks left after this and everyone relaxed and smiled and chatted. Needless to add everyone stared in a friendly way at us. I think they were impressed I had the right sort of skirt on and we could sit cross legged for that amount of time!
Afterwards we were led out to tables with food. We were given a small mountain of rice, veggies, chilli and soy. Again everyone relaexed smiled and sort of stared at us in a friendly way - this time because we don't eat meat.
Eventually we left to more smiles, etc. It's lovely to be included like that - as close as we may become to being celebrities!
