Buddha Day
Wesak or Vesakha/Vesak is the celebration of Buddha's birth.
It lands on the first full moon in May (or early June in a leap year).
In 2010 it is on Thursday 27th May.
In Theravada countries, (pronounced terra-VAH-dah) it is the most important day in the Buddhist calendar.
During Wesak, Buddhists celebrate the life of the Buddha and his teachings.
They remember the time of his enlightenment.
Wesak lasts three days. Statues of the Buddha are decorated, and in China they are bathed in scented water. People go to temples or monasteries to take offerings, meditate and hear a talk about Buddha's enlightenment.
Light has an important part to play in the Wesak celebrations. People light lamps and there may be spectacular firework displays.
Wesak is celebrated with great joy and vivid colours. Homes are cleaned and decorated in preparation. Celebrations begin before dawn, when devotees go to the temples early in the morning to meditate and take the Five Precepts.
In Thailand this festival is called Visakha and in Japan it is called Hana Matsuri.
The Buddhist religious calendar is lunar, i.e. based on the phases of the moon. Buddhists say that the Buddha was born and died at a full moon and most festivals take place when the moon is full.
There are many festivals during the year. Some are celebrated by Buddhists everywhere, others are only celebrated in a particular town or country. Buddhist festivals occur at different times during the year depending on which country they take place in and whether they are Mahayana or Theravada festivals.
Unlike Sunday for Christians, there is no fixed day for worship within Buddhism. Many Buddhists attend the temple for puja (the act of showing reverence to a god, a spirit or other), on days with a full or new moon.
http://www.manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk
~
Buddha Jayanti, also known as Buddha Purnima is the most sacred of Buddhist festivals. Buddha Purnima (Buddha Birthday) is celebrated in remembrance Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha is the founder of Buddhism. This day is the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha. It falls on the full moon of the fourth lunar month (month of Vaisakh) i.e. April or May. This day commemorates three important events of Buddha's life
- His birth in 623 BC.
- His enlightment i.e. attainment of supreme wisdom, in 588 BC.
- His attainment of Nirvana i.e. the complete extinction of his self at the age of 80.
This day is a thrice blessed day. Lord Buddha is considered the ninth avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu (Preserver in the Hindu Holy Trinity of Creator-Preserver-Destroyer). Gautam Buddha "lived and died in about the fifth century before the Christian era". Buddha means "enlightened one" - someone who is completely freefrom all faults and mental obstructions.
Gautam Buddha was not a god and the philosophy of Buddhism does not entail any theistic world-view. The teachings of the Buddha are solely to liberate human beings from the misery and sufferings of life.
According to the Buddhism, sorrow and desire are the main cause of all the evil and suffering of this world. Lord Buddha advocated the Eightfold Path consisting of precepts like right conduct, right motive, right speech, right effort, right resolve, right livelihood, right attention and right meditation to gain mastery over suffering. It is only after following this path one can reach the ultimate aim of Nirvana. Nirvana is the transcendental state of complete liberation. Gautama Buddha lived and taught in northern Inda in the 6th Century B.C.
Buddha travelled far and wide teaching hundreds of followers. Even after death his disciples continued to spread his teachings.
Rich and poor alike were attracted by the simplicity of Buddha’s teaching and his emphasis on complete equality of all, a notion antithetical to the existing Hindu caste system. The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka espoused the Buddhist religion in the 3rd century B.C. and helped in spreading it far and wide. Sarnath and Bodhgaya are two of the most important pilgrimage centres for the Buddhists.
Though Buddhism originated in India and the religion has gained tremendous popularity throughout the Far East in Asia, there are very few practising Buddhists in the country. The number of Buddhists in the world ranges "from less than two hundred million, to more than five hundred million, with the lower number closer to reality."
http://festivals.iloveindia.com
Product
Range 
