[3] Buddhist monks chant the suttas in Pali language overnight (continuously, without sleeping) in prelude to the gates of hell opening, an event that is presumed to occur once a year, and is linked to the cosmology of King Yama.

In order to liberate them, food-offerings are made to benefit them, some of them having the opportunity to end their period of purgation, whereas others are imagined to leave hell temporarily, to then return to endure more suffering; without much explanation, relatives who are not in hell (who are in heaven or other realms of existence) are also generally expected to benefit from the ceremonies.

In temples adhering to canonical protocol, the offering of food itself is made from the laypeople to the (living) Buddhist monks, thus generating "merit" that indirectly benefits the dead.

However, there are merit-transference ceremonies that can be closely compared to it in Sri Lanka, such as offering food to the ghosts of the dead.

In its broad outlines, it also resembles the Taiwanese Ghost Festival in its links to the notion of a calendrical opening of the gates of hell, King Yama, and so on.