Origin of Buddha’s Birthday

This Festival celebrates the birth of the Buddha who was born on the 8th day of the fourth lunar month (May) in 600 BC. He was originally known as Sidhhartha, a crown prince of a kingdom located in Northern India.

One of the Main activities of the festival is bathing the Buddha ritual. Legends records that when Prince Siddhartha was born, there were extraordinary and auspicious signs heralding his birth.

They describe the sky as being clear with brilliant sunshine, flowers blooming and birds singing. Dragon appears in the sky spurting two streams of purified water (one cool and one warm), that gently cascaded down to bathe Him.

At His birth, seven lotus flowers sprung up beneath His feet as he walked. Pointing one hand to the sky and ground, said “ In the heaven above and earth below, I vow to liberate all who suffer in these three realms”. Since that time Buddhist all over the world celebrate His birthday by using fragrant water to bathe the image of Buddha.

This ritual highlights a universal massage that “it’s easy to wash away physical dirt, but it’s much more difficult to cleanse one’s inner impurity of greed, anger and ignorance”. It is in hoping that through this action to remind ourselves, purifying our mindset and revealing the righteous mind, to co-insight with the Buddha’s teaching.