What is the significance of Khao Phansa?
Khao Phansa marks the first day of “Buddhist Lent,” a time when observant Buddhists fast from such things as meat, alcohol, and tobacco. For the most part, only Theravada, rather than Mahayana, Buddhists observe Khao Phansa, and even many Theravada practitioners choose not to fast.
What is Boun Khao Phansa?
The beginning of the Buddhist lent. Buddhist Lent is a period of three lunar months starting on the first day after the full moon of the eighth lunar month. It marks the beginning of the rainy season.
How many days ordain in Thailand?
The ceremony normally goes on for three days. In the ritualistic ceremony of the first day, or Sang Long receiving day, the boys will enter a tonsure ceremony and dress up in the Sang Long dress. Prayers are chanted that invoke the pre-enlightenment period of the Lord Buddha when he was the “Jewelled Prince”.
What is the end of Buddhist Lent Day?
Awk Phansa Festival
Awk Phansa Festival or end of Buddhist lent) takes place on the last day of the Buddhist lent. It occurs in October, around three months after Khao Phansa (Buddhist Lent Day), on the 15th-day full moon of the 11th month of the lunar calendar.
How long does Khao Phansa last?
Wan Khao Phansa, or Buddhist Lent Day, is the start of the three-month period during the rainy season when monks are required to remain in a particular place such as a monastery or temple grounds. Here, they will meditate, pray, study, and teach other young monks.
What do Buddhists do on Lent Day?
Traditions of Buddhist Lent Known as Khao Phansa or ‘Buddhist Lent’, this day marks the beginning of the three-lunar-month period, during which all monks should stay in their temples and not travel. During the lent period, elaborate wax candles are kept burning. In the city of Ubon, a Candle Festival is held.
What is the celebration of the beginning of Buddhist Lent?
Wan Khao Phansa
Wan Khao Phansa, or Buddhist Lent Day, is the start of the three-month period during the rainy season when monks are required to remain in a particular place such as a monastery or temple grounds. Here, they will meditate, pray, study, and teach other young monks.
Can monk marry?
Buddhists monks choose not to marry and remain celibate while living in the monastic community. This is so that they can focus on achieving enlightenment . Monks do not have to spend the rest of their life in the monastery – they are completely free to re-enter mainstream society and some only spend a year as a monk.
Do Buddhists do Lent?
Buddhist Lent is a special time of the year for Buddhists in Southeast Asia. It is something that does not exist throughout the religion, but was created for the Buddhists in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia and has everything to do with the rainy season in which the farmers planted their rice.
What is Vassa Thailand?
In Thailand, where all Buddhist males customarily spend some time in a monastery, vassa is a favoured period for temporarily experiencing the life of a monk. Seniority as a monk is commonly measured by the number of vassa seasons spent in a monastery.
When is Khao Phansa Day celebrated in Thailand?
Khao Phansa Day is a Buddhist holiday observed in Thailand on the first day following the full moon occurring in the eighth month of the Thai lunar calendar.
When does Asanha Bucha and Khao Phansa take place?
Processions take place in Ubon on Asanha Bucha Day and the connected Khao Phansa holiday, which takes place the following day (in 2016, on 20 July). Khao Phansa marks the start of the three-month Buddhist Lent period, also known as the Buddhist Rain Retreat.
What do monks do on Khao Phansa day?
Many monks enter monastic life on Khao Phansa Day, staying in monasteries and temples until the rainy season ends on Wan Ok Phansa Day. The number of rainy seasons, called “Vassas,” spent in isolation is the measure used to count how many years a Thai Buddhist monk “has been a monk.”
Where to find Khao Phansa candles in Thailand?
At the Aquatic Phansa Festival in Ayutthaya, the locals carry their candles by boat to the local temple, where monks will use them during their three-month period of seclusion.