Rituals:
Buddhism rituals are meditation, mantras, mudras, prayer wheels, monasticism, and pilgrimages. There are no official religious ceremonies for birth, marriage, or a birthday. Meditation is a form of mental concentration with the goal of enlightenment and spiritual freedom. Meditation is directly from the Buddha’s experiences and teachings. Mantras are sacred sounds that are believed to possess sacred powers. Some Buddhists chant mantras repeatedly while meditating. Mantras are also used for protection from evil and misfortune. The word mantra means “that which protects the mind.” Mudras are symbolic gestures that have the power of producing joy and happiness. Mudras are used in meditation. Prayer wheels are hollow metal cylinders with
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Some of the holidays are the Buddhist New Year, Dhamma Day, Elephant Festival, Sangha Day, Festival of Floating Bowls, Kathina Ceremony, Ancestor Day and Vesak Day. The Buddhist New Year is celebrated for three days from the first full moon day in April. Dhamma Day shows respect for “The turning of the wheel of the Dharma.” The Elephant Festival is the third Saturday in November. When a wild elephant is harnessed to a tame one, it resembles that a person new to Buddhism should be helped by an older Buddhist. Sangha Day commemorates the Buddha’s visit to Veluvana Monastery in the city of Rajagaha, where 1,250 arhats are said to have spontaneously returned from their wanderings to pay their respects to the Buddha. Sangha Day is celebrated on the full moon day of the third lunar month. The Festival of Floating Bowls is celebrated to pay respect to the holy footprint of the Buddha on the beach of the Narmada River in India. The Festival of Floating Bowls is celebrated on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month. Buddhists bring bowls of leaves, candles, and incense sticks, and float them in the water. As the bowls float down the river, all bad luck is supposed to disappear. The Kathina Ceremony is also known as the Robe Offering Ceremony. On any day after the three months of rains retreat season, non-monastics offer new robes and other necessities to the monks and nuns. Ancestor Day is when the gates of hell are opened on the first day of the eighth lunar month. Ghosts may visit the world for 15 days. Buddhists offer food to relieve the sufferings of the ghosts. Vesak Day is the most important festival in Buddhism. On Vesak Day, Buddhists celebrate the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha in one
Buddhism What is the meaning of Buddhism? Buddhism is a philosophy of life, it was started by Siddhartha Gotma, who is more commonly known as Buddha. Buddha isn’t god to them however he is well respected for passing down knowledge of how to find true happiness. The major aim of Buddhists in life is to find enlightenment (true happiness).Buddhist monks live by a strict moral code, in which they are given food, they live a life structured around the teachings of Buddha.
Puja is an auspicious activity that Buddhist adherents practice at a Temple or at home in their daily lives which may assist their path to nirvana. “Single-minded intense sitting…” is the key to proper meditation (Dogen) highlights that for one to transcend into a higher state, they must be able to meditate without the need to burn incense which distracts their senses from the environment. Puja portrays that rather than having the focus on physical matters, one should give focus on the spiritual side. Hence, the belief of mind over matter exists. Temple Puja is a place which adherents may practice rituals, allowing adherents to take on Buddhahood and contemplate about one’s self. The practice involves reciting prayers, chanting, bowing, and lighting incense which is all symbolic; Incense symbolises the purifying of oneself which represents the concept of achieving nirvana as the incense distracts one from their senses. During Puja, the adherents see the image of Buddha, hear the chanting, and smell the burning incense which make their experience multi-sensory. The monks of the Sangha usually chant ‘Hail Jewel of the Lotus’, bringing the adherent closer to nirvana, or they chant ‘Perfection of Wisdom’, enhancing the adherent’s understanding of their life. In Temple Puja, offerings are also made to bring about good Karma. Temple Puja is the interaction point between the Sangha and the adherent, thus creating a connection in the Buddhist community. The three jewels become non-existent if the connection between the Sangha and adherent did not exist. The Eightfold path plays an immense role in Puja: Right intention and view relates to the way an individual offers something. Right speech and action is the making of offering, bowing and chanting. Right effort and mindfulness is much more difficult for an adherent to attain but belongs to the meditation and chanting process. Right
Religion has always been a prominent part of our culture, yet is constantly changing. The stereotypes within these religions are slowly disintegrating, forcing people to become more accepting and open minded. Buddhism, specifically Shambhala, has changed what it means to be religious, focusing less on memorizing and worshipping, and more on finding the meaning to their life and who they are. The Shambhala tradition uses its rituals in order to answer questions about various other aspects of life. These rituals are derived from Buddhists myths, and form the foundation of the religion as a whole. The direct connection between ritual and myth allows Shambhala to be a transformative religion, in which it is redefining itself and our society.
The path from the after life to the land of the living is quite a treacherous journey. The Day of the Dead is a traditional Mexican holiday that dates back to the time of the Aztec Indians, beginning in the 14th century (“Mexico” 3). It is important to realize that this holiday is not about mourning the dead. It is a time to recognize how the dead have made an impact on the lives of their loved ones, and their soul’s journey back to the living. “And that's what it is, it's a celebration, not of their death, it's a celebration of their life. It's the celebration of recognizing that they are, on this particular day… that this is the day in which the spirits of the past are in the closest proximity to the living” ("Living on Earth: Day of the Dead" 2). One of the most important parts of the Day of the Dead holiday are the altars, also known as ofrendas. These are created in order to assist the dead along their passage from the underworld back to the home of their family. Creating an altar for Day of the Dead may seem morbid, but it is actually a beautiful and fascinating process.
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.
This is also called as Ganesh Chauth or Tilkuta Chauth. Lord Ganesha and Moon god is worshiped on Sakat Chauth. This vrat is mainly observed in North India and this day is celebrated as Tilkut Chauth.
Nepal is distinctly known as a world of colorful vibrant festivals. The biggest and most popular festivals based on religion are: Dashain and Tihar in Nepal. Dashain, a celebration of Goddess Durga’s victory over evil Mahisashur, has symbolic meaning deeply rooted in Nepalese society. Tihar, a celebration of lights and color dedicated to Goddess Laxmi, too unfolds social joy throughout the nation. Mahashivaratri is the celebration dedicated to the Lord Shiva which falls in February and March.
Gurpurbs are festivals that celebrate the birthday of the Gurus. Special services are held for Sikhs dressed in their best to honor the Gurus. The biggest holiday that Sikhs celebrate is called Vaisakhi, which is the celebration of the birth of their religion as well as a New Year’s Eve festival with parades, live music, and traditional
My group and I were fantasied by the Buddhist culture because of its architecture and that is known to be culture that means of changing oneself in order to develop qualities such as wisdom, kindness, peace, as these qualities would led a better life. We can to observe if this is displayed in a Buddhist ceremony and the best way to observe Buddhist culture was by going to one of their ceremonies. We visited a temple called Fo Guang Shah to witness their every Sunday prayer. In this essay, I analyze the power displayed in the ceremony because ideology and ruling class by looking at Athusser’s interpellation and theory of hegemony by Antonia Gramsci. The power demonstrated by Buddhist ceremony shows how people and the environment is controlled.
Two or three days before Nyepi, Hindus perform ritual cleansing to sanitize themselves and nature with Melasti or Melis, therefore it is called Melasti. They wear traditional attire, carry long-poled umbrellas and march to the sea. This occasion is dedicated to Sanghyang Widhi/Vishnu-Devas-Bataras, one of the gods (Putu, 2002). Melasti takes place at the beaches in Bali in order to respect the gods as the owners of land and sea. In this ritual, women carry fruits, flowers and sweet cakes to offer, while the men carry effigies, called Barong. Barong is a symbol for them to sense the gods’ presence. Upon their arrival at the ocean, the pendada (leader of the ritual) prays and rings...
Many holidays are celebrated around the world, and all of them follow a different set of ideologies. Some ideologies may be religious, political,
Time has come and gone by fast as people grow old. Every year many people around the world celebrate New Year to say goodbye to the past year and welcome another one to come by. Like any culture around the world that celebrates New Year, in Asia Lunar New Year is the traditional holiday that people celebrate that year according to the moon’s calendar. Viet Nam is also one of the countries celebrating Lunar New Year. However, before Vietnamese people left their country, they learned and followed their own traditional lifestyle of Lunar New Year celebration.
Date of celebration: falls on the 29th day of the 10th month in the Bhutanese calendar
A feature that is similar to that of the Zulu culture mentioned previously is that of concept of lobola or as the Thai people call it the son sod, the Thai version of the dowry (Schriever, 2015: < www.beachrepublic.com >). Buddhist monks are usually invited to attend and come in odd numbers, as odd numbers are considered lucky in Thailand, they normally arrive in numbers of 3, 5, 7 or 9 but never more than 9 (Schriever, 2015: < www.beachrepublic.com >). Schriever (2015), writes
This festival is celebrated when the Vishaka star falls on the Tamil month of Vaikasi (May-June). Vaikasi Vishaka, the Avatar day of Lord Muruga is celebrated in a grand manner at the temple.