A water blessing

Dear family and friends, if you come to visit there is every possibility you will get wet. Very wet. Drenched. And it has nothing to do with the wet season, monsoons and unpredictable weather (although that is also possible).
You could find yourselves being blessed. And it’s a very wet affair.

Just ask Lisa. On her recent visit, she wanted to see and do more than just the tourist attractions so I introduced her to some of my daily activities as part of living in Siem Reap. Let’s just say she was more enthused about some than others but was very keen to try this water blessing. Okay, to be fair, it is a lot cooler than pedalling five or six kilometres in baking heat or sitting in a stifling classroom akin to a sauna.
So the water blessing involved dragging ourselves out of bed bright and early and joining the Joker’s VBC building crew for the house blessing, an important ceremony that must take place before the family can move into the house. The Joker was still stuck in Phnom Penh at this point so we tagged along with a group of people we’d never met. Nothing like gate-crashing the party after they’ve put in the hard yards building.

This house was for a family of four and every ceremony starts with the family and friends and visitors walking around the house carrying the gifts for the new house while a villager trained by the monks leads the way.


Then everyone moves into the house for the ceremony to continue. This is the young couple who are receiving this house.

Smoking seems to be a thing and you often see it taking place during these ceremonies. Even the monks often smoke throughout. But these days they’re up with technology and these young monks seemed more intent on what was going on on Facebook.

Okay, to be fair I couldn’t see his phone so I don’t know that it was Facebook but he was definitely more involved in the phone than the ceremony. I guess young people are the same everywhere, regardless of whether they are monks or not.
After the house blessing we piled into the VBC truck and were taken out to a pagoda for the water blessing, which is where our drenching took place.
It involves a small donation and a few words from the monks, which often end with queen for women and king for men, which all sounds very cool but I’ve never been able to get to the bottom of the actual meaning.

And then we are all ushered over to the steps of the building and told to sit down. And it doesn’t matter where you choose to sit on those steps I can guarantee you will get soaked.


The water is supposedly blessed by the monks but I’m not sure how true that is. But the monk, who seems to relish in throwing bucket loads of water over everyone, is saying something throughout the ceremony. I believe it is along the lines of good luck to you, good luck for your future.
It’s a little cultural experience that many foreigners don’t know about and don’t get to try but seems to be popular among the locals. I’ve heard it is unique to Cambodia but I can’t be sure.
Have you had a unique cultural experience on your travels? Would you do the water blessing?