A prayer ceremony on behalf of the dead.
It is usually performed at the end of the month of Sa'ban. People bring a rice mound to the prayer house; the ceremony is performed and the congregation eats the food brought. It can be done earlier in the month on individual graves or in individual houses. The dead are being ‘fed’ with the rice mound. As the dead reportedly don’t eat together with others and so each one would have to be provided with a separate rice mound, therefore it is easier for the living to provide a rice mound at a communal meal in the prayer house. A week or two before the pabatsa a prayer ceremony is held called magbangun patey ‘waking the dead’. A rice mound is also provided but not for the dead.
We will have our prayer ceremony for the dead the day after tomorrow.