Paragraphs on Festivals celebrate by Buddhists!
The Buddhists celebrate Buddha Jayanti on Vaisakha Poornima. It commemorates the Buddha’s birth as well as his enlightenment. Parinirvana is a Mahayana Buddhist festival that marks the death of the Buddha. It is also known as Nirvana Day.
Buddhists celebrate the death of the Buddha, because they believe that having attained Enlightenment he achieved freedom from physical existence and its sufferings.
There are some other special days of celebration. Dharma (or Dhamma) Day marks the beginning of the Buddha’s teaching. Soon after his Enlightenment, the Buddha sought out his former disciples and shared his experience with them. This event which could be seen as the start of the Buddhist religion.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The first sermon to the Buddha’s original five disciples is known as ‘The First Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma (Dharmachakra)’. Sangha Day is also known as Fourfold Assembly or Magha Puja Day. Sangha Day is a celebration in honour of the Sangha, or the Buddhist community.
For some Buddhists Sangha refers only to monks and nuns. It is a chance for people to reaffirm their commitment to Buddhist practices and traditions. Sangha Day commemorates the spontaneous gathering of 1,250 enlightened monks (arahants) to hear the Buddha preach at Veluvana Vihara.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Here, the Buddha gave his first sermon, or recitation of the Patimokkha (the rules and regulations of the monastic order). The Kathina festival, which originated some 2,500 years ago, celebrates the largest alms-giving ceremony of the Buddhist year. It occurs at the end of the Vassa, or monsoon, period, in October and November. During this period, normally nomadic Buddhist monks will have remained in one place for three months, and the Kathina celebration marks the time for them to move on. The festival also celebrates the offerings by lay people of cloth to the monks when they leave. This ceremony is celebrated by the Theravada Buddhists. At the well-known Hemes monastery in Ladakh, there is an annual festival to signify birth of Guru Padmasambhava, the patron deity of the gompa (monastery).
Lailat al Qadr, the Night of Power, nuirks the night in which August as Pateti. A week after Pateti, Zoroastrians celebrate Khordad Sal, the birth of Zarathustra. The chosen date is symbolic as the actual date of Zarathustra is not known. The feasts to mark the festivals are known as Gahambara. There are six other gahambaras (besides the Navroze one) celebrated by Parsis, and they mark the change of seasons.