Vesak, the Buddha's Birthday

The story behind the day

Vesak is the Buddha's birthday in its widest sense. Theravāda Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Thailand keep a single day for his birth, awakening and death, on the full moon of Vaiśākha in April or May. Chinese Buddhists keep his birth on day eight of the fourth lunar month, and bathe an image of the infant Buddha. In Japan the birthday is Hanamatsuri, the flower festival, on 8 April. The forms differ, but everywhere the day is kept with lights, offerings and bathing rites.^[1–5]

Origins

Theravāda tradition holds that the Buddha was born, attained awakening and passed into final nirvana on the same full-moon day. East Asian Buddhists, by contrast, commemorate the three events on separate days: the birth in spring, the awakening in the winter and the death on a day of its own.^{[1, 6]}

How it is kept

In Sri Lanka, Buddhist homes light Vesak lanterns, and pandals lit with coloured bulbs show scenes from the Buddha's life and from the Jātaka tales. Free food is given out, and lay people take extra precepts, as on every full moon. In Thailand devotees keep the precepts and listen to sermons, and a traditional sermon on the Buddha's life runs through the night. In China and Korea the birthday brings the bathing of an image of the infant Buddha, and in Japan visitors pour sweet tea over an image of the newborn Buddha.^{[3, 5, 8–11]}

Across traditions

The division between the traditions mirrors a larger one. Theravāda gathers the three events into a single day, while the East Asian world spreads them across the year. A Japanese temple calendar such as Nishi Hongwanji's lists Hanamatsuri on 8 April and Jōdō-e, the awakening, on 8 December. The birth has its own day, on day eight of the fourth lunar month in China and on a fixed April date in Japan.^{[1–2, 4, 6]}