Calendar Entry #28: Asalha Puja Day, Lailat al Bara'ah and Birthday of Horus

We continue our journey through the Cauldrons Calendar feast/festival/holidays.


Asalha Puja Day

Sermon in the Deer Park

This is one of the most important festivals for Theravada Buddhists.  It is a day that celebrates the anniversary of the first sermon delivered by the Buddha at Deer Park over two and a half thousand years ago. 

 

It is named for the month of Asalha in the old Indian calendar and is celebrated on the full moon of that month - the 8th lunar month. 

 

The typical activites for Asalha Puja Day may include:

• Recital of the Eight Precepts by the monks. 
• Giving of alms to the monks.
• A Sermon may be delivered by a monk who may then lead a Meditation.
• Monks lead the lit candle procession three times around the Temple while chanting in Sanskrit.

 

Asalha was also the start of the monsoon season and it is a sort of Buddhist Lent or three month 'Rains Retreat' where monks spend three months of the rainy season in permanent dwellings, in a type of intensive retreat.   As monks usually travel around spreading the Buddha's teaching, this is a time for them to stay put during the period of poor weather.  This is specifically important for those in Thailand and India where the monsoon winds and torrential rain can make travel difficult and dangerous.  It also stops wandering monks from unintentionally damaging newly planted rice crops. 

 

During these three months the monks are not allowed to spend a night away from their chosen residence, or if they must go out, they have to be back before dawn the next morning.  Although there are exceptions, such as if a monk needs to be somewhere for a longer time due to the illness of a family member or a religions work that is more than a day away.  If this happens, no more than a seven day stretch is allowed.  It comes from Buddha and has been preserved throughout the centuries.

 

Lailat al Bara'ah

Also known as Mid-Sha'ban it is In keeping with Islamic tradition this celebration began at sunset last night (14th of July).   It is the night that is known as Lailat al Bara'ah or Laylatul Bara'ah, and means the night of records, the night of assignment, the night of deliverance and the night of 'quittancy' or forgiveness of sins.  It is believed, in the Sunni tradition, that this is the night that Allah travels to the nearest heaven to forgive every deserving Muslim.  The Shias believe that this is also a celebration of the birth of their final Imam - Muhammad al-Mahdi. 

 

Muslims may spend the night in a prayer filled vigil and while some accounts state that there is a celebration with feasting, others state that the day after Lailat al Bara'ah (so that would be today this year) is a day of fasting. 

 

Birthday of Horus 

I wrote about this in the Epagomenal Days post yesterday. Click here to read it.

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Calendar Entry #26: Ulambana Begins - kinda but not really.

Calendar event

Our calendar states that today is the beginning of Ulambana. Ulambana (or Ullambana) is a Buddhist festival that occurs on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month. Unfortunately we have mistakenly added it at the wrong time of the year. This year Ulambana is being celebrated on the 14th of August. What is sometimes celebrated at this time is the Obon festival of Japan. While it is celebrated largely in August, as we've stated in our calendar, it is observed in Tokyo on the 13-15th of July this year.

Obon is similar to Ulambana in that it is the Festival of Souls to commemorate deceased ancestors. However as this is really a festival that takes place in August, I'll go into more detail at the appropriate time.


*** edit ***

It's been pointed out to me that the references I used, and the cross references have pointed me wrong. As far as I could tell from my research Ulambana was not celebrated until August. I even checked out some celebrations that were being organised around the world and they all were set for August 2011. However upon further review it does appear that while what I found was for August, there are groups who would be celebrating this festival in July this year as well. Apologies for putting anyone wrong or misleading you.

Calendar Entry #8: Visakha Puja

We continue our journey through the Cauldrons Calendar feast/festival/holidays - this time we've got a Buddhist celebration.  

Statue of Buddha, Roberto Orgera

Visakha Puja or Vesakha Day is an annual Buddhist holiday also colloquially referred to as 'Buddha's Birthday'.  This day, however, isn't just a celebration of the Buddha's birth, but of a Buddhist Trinity, three important events that occurred in the life of Lord Buddha on the same day - the full moon of the sixth lunar month, typically May or June each year.  These three significant and separate events were the birth of Buddha, the day he achieved enlightenment (NIRVANA) and the day he passed away, at age eighty.

Today Buddhists will traditionally visit their temples where they will participate in activities that may include singing hymns in praise of The Buddha, The Dharma (his teachings) and The Sangha (his disciples), or listen to the Buddha's teachings by attending the reading of the Holy Scriptures ceremony or taking part in a candle lighting ceremony or procession in the evening.  Some temples may have a small statue of the baby Buddha in front of the altar, in a basin of water.  This allows devotees to pour water over the statue, a symbolic cleansing of one's bad karma.

The Buddha gave instruction on how homage was to be paid to him before he died.  It is not enough for devotees to merely leave offerings of flowers, incense and lights (to symbolise the decay that life, even the Buddha's, is subject to) when observing this day. Things die, and wither, but The Dharma is eternal.  Devotees will best pay homage by truly and sincerely striving to follow his teachings, using this day to reaffirm their determination in leading noble lives and practising loving kindness that will bring peace and harmony to humanity.