All Souls Day, a commemoration of deceased family and friends, is celebrated on November 2nd in Christianity. The Buddhist equivalent is a two-week long celebration called Pchum Ben. It is a major festival and everyone goes to her or his home village to be with family.
We celebrated Pchum Ben at DDP today, inviting Buddhist monks to come and chant. Here deaf students follow the sign language of an interpreter.
After the Buddhist blessing, Fr. Charlie had a Christian blessing, then we took the above group photo, and then all the staff and students ate a simple meal together before the students left DDP to spend nine days at home with their families.
