{"id":119,"date":"2022-04-04T20:34:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T20:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/?post_type=mec-events&#038;p=119"},"modified":"2025-12-26T13:41:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:41:31","slug":"vesak-full-moon-poya-day","status":"publish","type":"mec-events","link":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/?mec-events=vesak-full-moon-poya-day","title":{"rendered":"Vesak Full Moon Poya Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Vesak festival, or Buddha Day, celebrates three major events in the life of the Buddha: his birth, Enlightenment and passing away on the full moon of the 6th lunar month (May). It is the most important festival in the Buddhist lunar calendar.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-123 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakInSri_Lanka_800X537.jpg?resize=800%2C537&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakInSri_Lanka_800X537.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakInSri_Lanka_800X537.jpg?resize=300%2C201&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakInSri_Lanka_800X537.jpg?resize=768%2C516&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Buddhist festivals are a time for joy. The give Buddhists an opportunity to meet together, to take the Three Refuges and learn more about the Buddha&#8217;s teachings. Families bring food, candles and flowers to the monks in the monasteries. In return, the monks chant the scriptures, lead a period of meditation and give teachings on the themes of the festival.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-122 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakFestivalOfLights_Lanterns_800X384.jpg?resize=800%2C384&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakFestivalOfLights_Lanterns_800X384.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakFestivalOfLights_Lanterns_800X384.jpg?resize=300%2C144&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakFestivalOfLights_Lanterns_800X384.jpg?resize=768%2C369&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There is a party feel to the whole occasion. Houses and streets are cleaned and decorated with Buddhist flags and flowers. In villages, Buddhists gather around statues of the Buddha when it is dark. They walk around the statue with candles till all is covered in light.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-120 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakDayMainBurma_800X534.jpg?resize=800%2C534&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakDayMainBurma_800X534.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakDayMainBurma_800X534.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakDayMainBurma_800X534.jpg?resize=768%2C513&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/buddharashmi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/VesakDayMainBurma_800X534.jpg?resize=391%2C260&amp;ssl=1 391w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vesak is considered as both a religious and cultural festival among Buddhists. It is celebrated on the day of the full moon in May. This festival marks the birth, enlightenment and passing away into Nirvana of the Lord Buddha. The weeklong celebration gives the visitor a unique opportunity to discover religious and cultural traditions in Sri Lanka and other Buddhist countries.<\/p>\n<p>Vesak is also a time for great joy and happiness, expressed not by pandering to one\u2019s appetites but by concentrating on useful activities such as decorating and illuminating temples, painting and creating exquisite scenes from the life of the Buddha for public dissemination. Devout Buddhists also vie with one another to provide refreshments and vegetarian food to followers who visit the temple to pay homage to the Enlightened One.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"mec_category":[5],"class_list":["post-119","mec-events","type-mec-events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","mec_category-poya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/mec-events\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/mec-events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/mec-events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"mec_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buddharashmi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmec_category&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}