Visakha Bucha Day – National Holiday, this year Tuesday, 17^th of March

Visakha Bucha (Vesak) means the worship of the Buddha on the full moon day of the sixth lunar month, usually it falls in May. In Adhikamasa, the year with 13 full moons, it falls in the seventh lunar month.

Visakha Bucha Day is one of the most important days in Buddhism due to three important incidents in the life of Buddha: the birth, the enlightenment and the passing away fall on the same month and date – the Vesak full moon day.

So it is tradition for Buddhists throughout the world to gather and perform the worship to recollect wisdom, purity and compassion of the Buddha. It is celebrated every year and informally is also called “Buddha's Birthday”.

The exact date of Visakha varies according to the various lunar calenders used in different traditions. In countries following the Buddhist calender, it falls on the full moon Uposatha day (usually the 5^th or 6^th lunar month), while in China Visakha day is on the eight of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. The date varies every year in the Western Gregorian calendar, but falls in April or May.

Bring happiness to others

Celebrating Visakha also means making special efforts to bring happiness to the unfortunate like the aged, the handicapped and the sick. To this day, Buddhists will distribute gifts in cash and kind to various charitable homes throughout the country. Visakha is also a time for great joy and happiness, expressed not by pandering to one’s appetites but by concentrating on useful activities such as decorating and illuminating temples, painting and creating exquisite scenes from the life of the Buddha for public dissemination. Devout Buddhists also vie with one another to provide refreshments and vegetarian food to followers who visit the temple to pay homage to the Enlightened One.

Paying homage to the Buddha

Tradition ascribes to the Buddha himself instruction on how to pay him homage. Just before he died, he saw his faithful attendant Ananda, weeping. The Buddha advised him not to weep, but to understand the universal law that all compounded things (including even his own body) must disintegrate. He advised everyone not to cry over the disintegration of the physical body but to regard his teachings (The Dhamma) as their teacher from then on, because only the Dhamma truth is eternal and not subject to the law of change. He also stressed that the way to pay homage to him was not merely by offering flowers, incense, and lights, but by truly and sincerely striving to follow his teachings. This is how devotees are expected to celebrate Vesak: to use the opportunity to reiterate their determination to lead noble lives, to develop their minds, to practice loving-kindness and to bring peace and harmony to humanity.

Historical Background

Buddha was a king by birth. He was born in Sakya Kingdom, eighty years before the Buddhist era at Lumbini Park (today's Rummindel, in Nepal, north of India) on a Friday, the Vesak full moon day in the year of the dog.

His personal name was Prince Siddhatha. He was the son of King Suddhodama and Queen Sirimahamaya. In his day of birth, his mother wanted to visit her home country, Devadaha. So in the morning of the Vesak Full moon day, the Queen left to visit Devadaha and wanted to visit a park of Sals trees called Lumbini on the way there. Arriving at a Sal tree she started contractions and gave birth to a son there. The Kings of Kapilavasutu and Devadaha were very happy about this.

Prince Siddhatta was raised in luxury and led a happy life of a privileged youth. He married at the age of 16 to Princess Yasodhara or Bimba, who gave birth to a son, Rahula.

When he was 29, he was unhappy and became a wandering ascetic at the bank of the Anoma River. He then studied the mystic practices of the foremost Brahmin ascetics and realized that these were not the way to enlightenment. He went on his own way applying the reflective thought of conscious meditation to a rational simple life of moderation.

At the age of 35, he attained Enlightenment at Uruvelasenanigama subdistrict, Magadha State (today: Bihar State, India) on Wednesday, the Veska Full moon day in the year of the cock, forty five years before Buddhist Era.

He discovered the Ariyasacca or the Four Noble Truths:

The Noble Truth of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Extinction of Suffering and the Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Extinction of Suffering.

After attaining Enlightenment he wandered from place to place teaching what he had discovered to people are willing to learn from him. Many of them achieved various levels of spiritual attainment. These, his followers, he sent to spread Buddhism everywhere.

The Buddha passed away on a Tuesday, the Veska Full moon day in the year of the small snake under the two Sal trees in the Sala Grove of the Mallas in Kusinara, capital of the Malla State (today: located in Kusinagra of Uttrarapradesa, India) at the age of eighty.

The performance of the Visakha Buddha day had been continuously observed in India, the motherland of Buddhism, before Buddhism spread to Sri Lanka and Thailand. The Visakha worship there has been observed to the present day.

In Thailand, Visakha Bucha observance began during the Sukhuthai period (around 700 years ago), because of the close religious relations between Thailand and Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan monks came to propagate Buddhism in Thailand and were highly respected. Thai monks also went to study in Sri Lanka. It's believed that, those monks introduced this ceremony to the King and people at that time.

References - http://www.thaicongenvancouver.org/visakhabucha.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ves%C4%81kha