Water Festival Tragedy Supersititions

The Water Festival Tragedy of Nov 22 taught me more than I could imagine about the religious spirit at work in Cambodia, blinding the Khmer people to the truth of Christ. The Khmer are gravely supersititious and the fear among the people was clearly evident in the week following the tragedy.

Here are some of the supersititions that have circulated associated with the tragedy:

• A comet was seen in the sky 2 or 3 months ago. It was a portent of disaster and some monks said so at the time. The tragedy at Koh Pich was the fulfillment of that prophesy.

• The bridge at Koh Pich was never properly blessed by monks after construction leaving it open to bad luck and mischievous spirits. The tragedy at Koh Pich is the result.

• There was an abnormally orange sky at the time of the tragedy, indicating some higher involvement.

• Monks warned the government 3 days before the Water Festival that there were supernatural signs of impending disaster. The government warned the people to be careful and be on the look-out. They thought that perhaps it would be a bomb or a terrorist attack. When a young boy drowned on the first day of the Water Festival, they thought this was the prophesied ill-event and let down their guard.

• Koh Pich means Diamond Island. The island is like a giant diamond. It is too big. Giants eat people. The deaths on the bridge were, in a metaphorical sense, this giant diamond eating people.

• Phnom Penh is now overwhelmed with spirits of the recent dead, wandering the edges of the city, many lost and unsure where to go. Children are in particular danger of possession by these spirits and should not be allowed outside after dark. In fact, due to these spirits, it is unwise for anybody to go out after dark.

• Koh Pich (Diamond Island) is a name like Koh Dach. Dach is close to the word and phrase 'dach dong heurm' which means 'to not breath' or 'to be unable to breath,' which is what happened to the people who died on the bridge.

• People must assemble special offerings to display in front of their house. The offering should include bananas, salt, rice, water, incense and other ingredients. Some say there must be 7 items in the collection. Some suggest there should be some sort of blood offering included, presumably to satiate the tiger. (This is the year of the tiger.)

Indeed the price of bananas rose from about 60c as kilo to $7.50 a kilo, a regular puchase on Thursdays, it was not to be that week.

Please pray that the Khmer people can be freed from the strongholds of superstition.

Blessings

Fiona