This weekend brings Asaraha Bucha Day and the beginning of Buddhist Lent. What does this mean? Well a 4 day weekend for one thing, and I get to spend more time worshiping at the temples (which I really wouldn’t mind if it didn’t mean hours of torture sitting on the hard concrete floors).
I found a bit about Buddhist Lent on the internet: Lord Buddha designated this 3 month period, as the Lent season, 'WAN KHOW PAHNSA'. (Wan = day; Khow = in, enter; Pahnsa = residence period), on the first day of the waning moon (i.e. the next day after the full moon = Raem 1 Khum) of the 8th lunar month. This rule still applies and means that monks must remain in residence. They must spend every night within their own temple and must not travel, except in urgent cases with the temple's permission of not more than 7 days away.
Traditionally, the beginning of 'Pahnsa' is celebrated in the Kingdom in many ways. One of the most important ceremonies is to present special Lent candles ranging in size from as small as 10 in diameter to over 6 feet high. Certainly, these huge candles remain alight in the temple chapel (Bhote) throughout the three PAHNSA months, instead of having to light fresh candles daily. The giving of Lent candles, a symbol or 'Gift of Light', is supposed to bring special merit. Lighted candles have been of daily necessity for Buddhist monks especially in the olden days when electricity wasn't available. These candles are given by the King, government agencies, and ordinary people in all walk of life.
Traditionally, the beginning of 'Pahnsa' is celebrated in the Kingdom in many ways. One of the most important ceremonies is to present special Lent candles ranging in size from as small as 10 in diameter to over 6 feet high. Certainly, these huge candles remain alight in the temple chapel (Bhote) throughout the three PAHNSA months, instead of having to light fresh candles daily. The giving of Lent candles, a symbol or 'Gift of Light', is supposed to bring special merit. Lighted candles have been of daily necessity for Buddhist monks especially in the olden days when electricity wasn't available. These candles are given by the King, government agencies, and ordinary people in all walk of life.
On this occasion, in addition to merit-making at temples throughout the country, various kinds of 'merry-making' can be seen among the people (of course, the monks do not participate in these activities)
Today, the people from my office went to some temples to donated big candles & money (and of course they brought me along). We left at about 9:30 am and went to different temples. They had a ceremony at each one that lasted about 30 minutes. It was really neat to see the different temples (each village has its own). I even noticed a few things about the temple in my village that I hadn’t noticed before…the guy that was driving us parked behind the temple…it has these “interesting” murals painted on the back wall.
We made it to 5 of them before my coworkers rebelled and demanded food so we ended up eating at one of the temples and then set out for the last one. I think that the last ceremony is a bit more memorable because the monk that was conducting the ceremony stopped in the middle to answer his cell phone! And then he handed his digital camera to one of the staff to take pictures (according to my limited knowledge of Buddhism & monks, a monk is only supposed to own his robes, his shoes, his razor (for shaving his head), and the bag that they have to carry stuff in…they depend upon donations for everything else). Everyone thought it was pretty funny though. We got back to the office at 1:30…that is a lot of temple time!
So now I have a 4 day holiday to look forward to. I think I am going to try to catch up on some laundry & cleaning. And then on Wednesday, I get to go to another volunteer’s site to help out with an English Camp…which should be very entertaining!
We made it to 5 of them before my coworkers rebelled and demanded food so we ended up eating at one of the temples and then set out for the last one. I think that the last ceremony is a bit more memorable because the monk that was conducting the ceremony stopped in the middle to answer his cell phone! And then he handed his digital camera to one of the staff to take pictures (according to my limited knowledge of Buddhism & monks, a monk is only supposed to own his robes, his shoes, his razor (for shaving his head), and the bag that they have to carry stuff in…they depend upon donations for everything else). Everyone thought it was pretty funny though. We got back to the office at 1:30…that is a lot of temple time!
So now I have a 4 day holiday to look forward to. I think I am going to try to catch up on some laundry & cleaning. And then on Wednesday, I get to go to another volunteer’s site to help out with an English Camp…which should be very entertaining!
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