Vassa and Āsāḷha Pūjā

The story behind the day

Vassa is the Theravāda monastic rains retreat, three months in which monks stay in one residence instead of travelling. It begins the day after the full moon of Āsāḷha in July, and that full moon is itself a holy day, Āsāḷha Pūjā, when the Buddha's first sermon is remembered. In Thailand the retreat is Buddhist Lent and its first day is Khao Phansa. Rituals mark the start and the end of the retreat on the full-moon days of July and October, and the end is a Pavāraṇā, when each monk invites the others to point out his faults.^[1–6]

Origins

By tradition the Buddha himself instituted the rains retreat. The Vinaya, the monastic code, records why: in the early years of his teaching the Jains found fault with his monks for not keeping the custom of staying put, and an account of the rule's origin adds that farmers complained of fields ruined by Buddhists wandering in the monsoon. The Buddha then allowed his followers to stop wandering and to spend the three months of the rains in one place.^{[1, 7–8]}

What it marks

Āsāḷha Pūjā, on the full moon that opens the retreat, commemorates the Buddha's first sermon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which the Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions places in the Deer Park at Isipatana, near Benares. In it the Buddha sets out the middle way between sensual indulgence and self-torment, and the four noble truths. Tibetan Buddhists keep the first teaching separately, as Chokhor Düchen on day four of the sixth month.^{[3, 9–11]}

How it came to be

In the Vinaya the retreat begins on the morrow of the Āsāḷha full moon, roughly July, with a second possible start a month later. Monks keep to their residence and may leave only for short business, with a return within seven days. The Invitation, Pavāraṇā, marks the end: each monk invites the others to point out any fault they have seen, heard or suspected. In Thailand the first day of Lent, Khao Phansa, comes on day one of the waning half of the eighth lunar month.^{[2, 4–5, 12]}

How it is kept

Ubon candle carving processionIllustration · AI-generated

Monks in Thailand vow to stay at a single place for the three months, and many Thai men take temporary ordination just for the retreat. Laypeople prepare by making large wax candles for the season, which are carried in procession to the temple, and they offer bathing robes, food and other necessities. The Thai retreat is reckoned from day one of the waning half of the eighth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the waxing half of the eleventh, and rituals mark both ends of it on the full-moon days of July and October. Its close brings major merit-making ceremonies, and for the lay gift of new robes that begins the kaṭhina season.^{[6, 13–16]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.