Visaka Bucha Day, May 30th

The Three Most Important holy days of the year for Thai Buddhists all include the word “Bucha”, which means to pay homage. Asaraha Bucha commemorates the day the Lord Buddha preached his first sermon. Makha Bucha marks both the occasion when 1,350 of the Buddha 146’s disciples (monks) gathered without prior notice and listened to the Buddha elaborate some of his most important teachings in a sermon, as well as the day he foresaw his own death and attainment of Nibbana (Nirvana). But the most auspicious of the three is Visakha Bucha, which simultaneously commemorates three important anniversaries in the life of Siddharta Gautama, the Lord Buudha: his birth, his enlightenment, and his death.

The Lord Buddha passed from his life exactly 80 years from the day of his birth. On that day, 2543 years ago (543 years before the birth of Christ), when the count of the Buddhist Era (BE) began, the Buddha achieved the ultimate goal of merging his enlightenment with Nirvana, freeing himself forever from the eternal cycle of death and reincarnation which is the fate of lesser mortals.

His death occurred on the 15th day of the waxing moon of the 6th lunar month (the 8th month of the Lanna calendar) and it is on this day each year in Thailand that Visakha Bucha is celebrated throughout the country.

On Visakha Bucha Day people put up religious flags outside their houses. They take part in ceremonies at temples and they make merits. They bring flowers, candles, and incense to pay respect to the Triple Gem, i.e. Buddha (the Great Teacher), the Dhamma (the Truth) and the Sangha (the community of the followers). In the evening, people take part in candle-lit processions and walk around the main chapel of the temple three time. In the procession, each person carries flowers, three incense sticks and a lighted candle.

There is another way of making merit. It is Bhavana or development of the mind. In English Bhavana is usually translated as meditation. Mental development means working from the base of morality (Sila), together with the development of concentration (Samadhi) and mindfulness (Sati). It was this kind of practice that enabled many of his noble disciples to become Arahants as well.