Song Pret 2009 (10th Month Tradition)

I went back to Baling the day after I came back from all the way Cyber. It was pretty tiring to travel for two days in a row even though I wasn’t the one who drive. My mum literally dragged back to her hometown to celebrate Song Pret.

What is Rap(receive) Pret /Song(send) Pret? It’s  called “The 10th month tradition” which is a merit festival taken place in the mid of the 10th month (according to the lunar calendar). People will give the monk some food and consumer’s product to spiritually give merit to their ancestors.

The purpose it’s celebrated is to spiritually give merit to ancestors. In religion, these ancestors called “Pet-Chon”, people called “Pret” which means one who has been suffering from bad acts he had done before he died. These Pret then have to spend their time after death in hell with many troubles. Therefore, their children and relatives have to give merit to help them once each year.

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My step sis tagged along to Baling too. We prepared some small groceries such as sugar, salt, prawn paste etc for the festival. We went to the temple on Saturday morning for prayer followed by lunch time for the monk followed by the normal villagers and continued with the prayer soon after that. Every year, youngster dresses up as “pret” to make the festival lively.