Almsgiving

On our last weekend in Midigama we were invited to join the almsgiving ceremony for Bambera’s father, who passed away in June after a tragic accident. According to Buddhist religion the family of someone who die will hold an almsgiving for monks three months after the person has passed away, and then repeat on year after. Apparently this is done because they believe almsgiving will raise the merit of the departed and, as they believe in a life after death this will give them a bigger change of being born into a better next life.

Ten monks came in the morning for the almsgiving of our friend’s father. The number of monks coming varies and obviously the more monks the better it is and I think this is something the family will all put their money into, it also seem like the more monks the higher status you have. The ceremony started with the monks being seated (on the floor) with the closest family sitting inside the room with them; in this case being the wife, the sons and the brothers and sisters of the departed. The head monk started off with a prayer and everyone inside and outside bowed their heads and held their hands in Namaste. After the first part of the prayer was finished only the closest family kept their hands in Namaste and the prayer now seemed to be more directed at them.

I found the highlight of the ceremony to be after the prayer when family and friends who wanted could serve the monks rice & curry. Everyone grabbed a bowl each and served monk after monk from their bowl. When the monks finished eating the family and some of the closest friends gave them gifts to be taken back to the temple. Language can be a little tricky sometimes so it is hard to understand the details of it but it would all be to raise merit for the departed. The ceremony was finished with some sort of parade with the head monk and one of the sons.

When the monks left it were time for everyone else to eat, and what a show! Rice & curry (in as many different ways you can only imagine) was placed on the floor and you just had to push your way through to get in. And Sri Lankan food is known for being spicy and this was definitely not cooked for foreigners so I have to admit we struggled, not to mention it would have been around 35 degrees as well; the food was super hot and the weather was too. But what an experience.

The next day Manike told me they had cooked 100kg of rice and in the afternoon they had to cook another five kilos for the latecomers. They estimated that 300 people showed up for the almsgiving and this is supposed to be a very good thing for the family.

The almsgiving with our friends’ family was a great ending to a beautiful holiday. Although it was a tragedy that Bambera lost his father the almsgiving is seen as a happy day and we feel extremely grateful of being a part of this family’s life and that we get to join them on special occasions like this. Hopefully it wont be too long before we see them again next time.

A very tired Ravihan after a long day.

I apologize if the details about the Buddhist almsgiving is not correct as this is how my friends have explained it to me and I guess it can vary from country to country, and as said language can easily be misunderstood sometimes.