Vesak Celebration at the Vihara June 9th

Vesak Celebration at the Vihara June 9th

The season has turned and the cold weather is upon us. For South Australian Buddhists this means the season of Vesak is upon us. As I write this, many temples have already had their Vesak and today is Vesak at the ASBV Crafers temple. BSSA’s Vesak is yet to come – another two weeks June 9th. This year our festivitieswill go into the evening with an open fire and lantern lighting & procession.

Vesak being a lunar festival centres around the full moon in May so each temple and vihara chooses its date as close to the full moon date as possible up to 15 days either side. Of course the big temples get the dates close to the actual moon date.  This year  the full moon in May is Tuesday 29th May.  The lunar calendar being 13 moonthly rather than 12 monthly needs to readjust/resynchronise itself to the Gregorian yearly calendar that we commonly use. So this year in Sri Lanka they chose April full moon for Vesak.  And so we get a two month spread of Vesak celebrations this year.

BSSA Vesak Celebration : 10:30am–7.30pm, Saturday June 9th 2018

You are invited to our Vesak Festival! Small and friendly.

come for all or part of the day’s activities. enjoy spending time with a few good people

Vesak is the most significant day in the Buddhist calendar, remembering the birth, awakening & passing away of the Buddha and is celebrated on or near the full moon in May every year.

We will be incorporating activities from a variety of traditions to make our own multicultural event with an Australian flavour. It will be a day with fun for all ages and people from many nationalities attending. The festivities will be conducted in English and hosted by our Bhikkhuni, Ayya Santacārī.

We will be beginning this auspicious day with Dana and Puja between 10:30am and 12:30 before beginning our day’s festivities.

1pm Dhamma Talk
2pm  Chanting
2.30pm Cup of Tea

3pm Quiz Session
4pm Lantern Making & write out on a card what we are grateful for in the Dhamma
5.30pm Decorate the Garden with lanterns and time for cup of tea

6pm Lantern Parade
6.30 Buddhist Ghost Stories around a small fire
Marshmallows over the fire and supper

7.30pm Blessing for our ancestors and animal friends.
Guided visualization of seeing all our ancestors and animal friends past and present and wishing them to be happy and safe.

below: Last Year’s Vesak quiz game was enjoyed by everyone.

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