Throughout the year, Buddhists celebrate many special days and festivals. Although these festivals are celebrated differently everywhere, the purpose of celebrating these days is not forgotten and is the same for everyone; Buddhists remember that these days are to celebrate the Buddha, and to celebrate the Buddhist community. There are many Buddhist festivals that are celebrated around the world, but the three main festivals are, the Buddhist New Year, Vesak, and Magha Puja Day.
The first main festival that Buddhists celebrate is the Buddhist New Year. For Buddhists in Mahayana countries like, China, Korea, and Vietnam, the New Year celebrates the start of spring and the start of new life, and it’s celebrated at the end of January or the beginning of February. In Vietnam, families prepare for the New Year by cleaning the house and cooking traditional foods like sticky rice, and dried young bamboo soup. The first day of the New Year includes visiting the homes of family and friends, ancestral worshipping, giving New Year’s greetings, and giving lucky money to children and elderly people. On New Year’s people fill the streets to have a parade and make lots of noise with firecrackers, drums, and bells to get rid of the evil spirits. After the parade, families and friends come together to eat and share happiness of the New Year with each other. In Theravada countries like, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, The New Year is called “Losar” and it is celebrated differently. The New Year is celebrated for three days in April starting on the day of the first moon. In India, braided pastries called khapse are placed on altars as offerings and a silk scarf (khata) is given to visiting friends and family. Families eat a special soup called guth...
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...order). In Thailand, Buddhists gather at temples after dark with incense, flowers, and candles. After they light the candles, they go around the temple’s main hall three times, once for each of the Thee Jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Sangha, and the Dharma; these three things are what Buddhists look to for guidance. Celebrations vary from country to country, but most include meditation, chanting, lighting oil lamps, and reaffirming people’s commitment to the Buddhist practice.
Therefore, the most important Buddhist festivals are the Buddhist New Year, Vesak Day, and Magha Puja Day. These celebrations all include spending time with family and friends and going to the temple to worship the Buddha. Although the way these festivals are celebrated differently by Buddhists all over the world, the reason why it’s celebrated is remembered and is the same for everyone.
Vietnamese festival for celebrating the lunar New Year. On the first day of the festival,
Buddhism concerned with humanism and the art of living daily life rather than with supernatural authority or even metaphysical conjectures. The core of belief and practice to which all Buddhists adhere are “The Four Noble Truths.”
...as a very important day. Diwali; the word itself meaning “row of lights,” is another prominent Hindu holiday and occurs on what we know as New Year Eve—December 31st. It is a festival lights in which last for a five days. The lighting of candles signifies the welcoming of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Gambling is a norm on Diwali as it is seen as a way of assuring good luck for the upcoming year. The fourth day of Diwali is especially significant as it is the beginning of the lunar month of Karttika. On this particular day many celebrate religious customs to signify the New Year according to the Vikrama calendar (“Religion Facts,”n.p).
Buddhism is one of the worlds major religions with 300 million followers around the world. Buddhism has many beliefs, tradition, and practices based on teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It is a religion that doesn't involve in having a belief in a God or Gods. many people believe Buddhism is a way of life or a philosophy. Buddhists believe that Buddha is not God and he didn't say he was God, but he was a man that taught people the path to enlightenment that he learned from his own experience. Many believe that Buddhists worship statues of the Buddha, but by bowing to the Buddha statue they are paying their respect and expressing their gratitude for his teachings. There are also different types of Buddhism because it changes from country to country do to different cultures and customs. Buddhism is believed to originate in northern India in 563 BC. It is also believed that the traditions of Buddhism was taught by Siddhartha Gautama also called the Buddha meaning the enlightened one or awakened. Siddhartha Gautama was born to a rich family in Lumbini India. When Siddhartha Gautama reac...
...tovah tikateiv veteichateim,” “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.” c) Tashlich, a special prayer said near a body of water (an ocean, river, pond, etc.), in evocation of the verse, “And You shall cast their sins into the depths of the sea.” And as with every major Jewish holiday, after candle lighting and prayers Jews recite kiddush and make a blessing on the challah. Both in Judaism and Hinduism the New Year is a time of celebration. A time where all people but the past behind them and enter the New Year with a clean slate, where God had forgiven all people for all there sins from the previous year.
Since I grew in traditional chinese family, so I don’t know much about religions. In my family, we don’t go to church or temple. In my family, we do have some special customs that we follow during holidays,
Christianity and Islam are monotheistic religions, but Buddhism differs from those religions as it is considered more of a ‘lifestyle’ than a specific type of religion. Buddhism centers around ...
There are two holy days in the Hindu religion named Diwali and Holi. Diwali is a festival of lights, and is India’s biggest and most important festival of the year. It is mainly celebrated in the months of October and November. This festival is a great time for family to get together and be together. Holi is another festival that family gets together. Holi is a festival of colors. Holi is a holiday where they get together and dance, play, and bring joy onto their home. Depending on the region, some cover their body is many different colors to celebrate the day.
Buddhism prevailed as a religion indigenous to west India and comprises of varieties of traditions, beliefs and practices based on the teachings of Buddha. There are many reasons why Buddhism became so popular and entered into many civilizations. Buddhism began to be popular throughout Asia alongside India. Buddhism has blossomed in the contemporary world, especially in the West. It is an issue to wonder what Buddhism offers that other religions cannot and has become so significant worldwide. Buddhism has become an idea that is widespread and the teachings of Buddha have made a real difference in many civilizations like India, China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea and surprisingly Buddhism has come to make a significant difference in American culture.
"Basics of Buddhism." n.d. The Living Edens: Thailand. Public Broadcasting Service. Website. 6 March 2014. .
I was always fascinated in the Buddhist religion and this class assignment was a great opportunity for me to take advantage of my curiosity. I decided I would visit a Buddhist center. With the company of my mother, I went to the Diamond Way Buddhist Center in Miami. According to my interview with the Buddhist that instructed the meditation service, every Monday and Friday they have a meditation service for the 16th Karmapa meditation from 8:00pm to 8:30pm. This center is part of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism (Anonymous). Upon arriving, I realized that it was in someone’s home. Many Buddhist offer their homes for Buddhist centers and are unpaid for their services. However, they do accept donations. Before entering the house, we had to remove our shoes. When we entered I could smell the scent of incense burning. As presented in World-Faiths, removing your shoes before entering a Buddhist center or temple is a form of worship. Also, incense and candles are used to represent Buddha’s enlightenment (World-Faiths).
After the visitation at the temple, I noticed that the Buddhist people did not only idolized Buddha spiritually but physically too. Buddhist their god and inspiration is Buddha, which is bald male. The temple had different statues of Buddha everywhere, such the craved in walls, shelves, posters, and statues. The interesting thing I noticed was that the Buddhist people wore robs which was very similar to the rob Buddha wears. But, there was a hierarchy difference among the Buddhist people because the monks wore orange with gold robs and the main monk wore red with gold robs, whereas, others wore brown robs. Other than, dressing up like Buddha there was another example of idolizing Buddha, which was that all the monks there had shaved their head just like how Buddha was bald. When any Buddhist entered the holy room where the ceremony was held, they would bow down to the five statues that displayed in the room. They would also sit on the ground with their legs crossed as Buddha had the same po...
Those celebrating Diwali spend time with family and friends. They perform religious ceremonies to bring in wealth and prosperity for a new year, cook and eat delicious food, design rangolis, light up their lives by lighting diyas (small earthen lamps), candles and sometimes, by lighting fireworks.
The Chinese New Year is fifteen days long and each day involves a different custom based off of a different ideology such as cleaning your house will wipe away the bad luck of the preceding year. Halloween although originating in Ireland, was carried to other countries and is now often seen as an equivalent to the popular Day of the Dead Celebration in Mexico. Although, Day of the Dead is about celebrating dead loved ones, the act of dressing up in costumes happens in both celebrations. Halloween follows the ideology that children dress up in costumes and go collect candy from people’s houses whereas day of the dead is centered around the ideology that for one night dead loved ones can be reunited with their families. Easter and the popular Jewish holiday Passover are often seen as the same thing because they fall around the same thing and both celebrate spring. All around the world countries celebrate independence days that are on different days but they all represent relatively the same thing. But, different countries hold different ideologies for their independence days. For
Every country in the world has its own festival and celebration. People all around the world love joining together and sharing good time through the festivals and celebrations. Festivals are great way to experience local culture. Sometime they even offer a glimpse into past. There are hundreds of festivals across the world. So are you ready to experience of fun and colorful festivals? Below are some of festivals from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.