GenericHolidays

This ceremony marks two important dates in the life of Buddha. The first event occurred two years after Buddha’s enlightenment and is referred to as the Fourfold assembly. These events were:

• All 1,250 monks had achieved enlightenment.
• These monks were ordained by Buddha himself
• The monks assembled on their own without being called together.
• All of these occurred on full moon day of the third lunar month. As part of this gathering Buddha gave the basic principles of Buddhism to the monks. These principles are:

• Not to do any bad deeds
• To do good deeds
• To cleanse the mind of impurities.

If everyone followed these principles we would have a peaceful family, peaceful community, peaceful nation, and peaceful world. Or put another way, we would have peaceful and happy lives.

The second event occurred in the second half of Buddha’s life on Makha Puja day. Buddha delivered a sermon called "Keys for success". The second event was three months prior to his passing away. During this ceremony lay people focus more intensely on Dhamma and meditation. Dhamma (or Dharma) as it is sometimes referred to is the teachings of Buddha. Lay people would typically take vows to refrain from bad habits and perform acts to benefit them spiritually. The Keys are as follows:

• Good will and good intention (Chanda)
• Effort (Viriya)
• Thoughtfulness (Citta)
• Investigation (Vimangsa)

Thai Buddhist celebrate the Songkran Festival. You may know it by one of its "nicknames" – Thai New Year or the Water Festival.

It is a Thai tradition to give Alms offering to Monks. And in turn, you offer this good deed to relatives who passed away by wishing for them by pouring a small glass of water on a big tree and it is a very good deed and good luck for the beginning of a New Year. This year, as in earlier years there will be a ceremony of sprinkling the Buddha statues and Monks with flower pedals & perfumed water., and, of course, the congregation will also sprinkle perfumed water on each other for good luck and good health and a prosperous New Year. There will be Thai Vegetable and Thai food available.

For more information on Songkran also see the following articles:

•  Songkran from a Monk's perspective
• The Songkran Festival Story

Things to do on Songkran:

• Do offer food alms to the Buddhist monks at the temple
• Do donate the merit on behalf of one's ancestors
• Do sprinkle water onto a Buddha image and the monks for good luck
• Do pour scented water onto the parents and elders hands for good luck and prosperity
• Do bring family members to visit grandparents.  It is a family day.
• Do clean up home and engage in volunteer work to clean public areas
• Do set birds and fish free for merit
• Do politely play with water for joy and to continue good traditions
• Do arrange the tradional plays to continue the cultural heritage

Officially Thailand celebrates New Years Day on January 1. In ancient times, New Years way the first day of the waning moon of the first lunar month. This means that New Years was celebrated on different days from year to year. In these times, New Years Day occurred in late November. During the reign of King Rama V (1868-1919) New Years day was changed twice; the last time New Years was celebrated in April. When Thailand became a constitutional monarchy New Years Day was officially changed to January 1.

Remember that during the reign of Rama V, New Years was celebrated in April. Typical New Years activities in rural Thailand include exchanging gifts & greetings; water throwing (keep that in mind), building sand pagodas, and honoring elders. In rural Thailand April is a much better time to celebrate. January is too cold for many of these activities. It is also harvest time. April, on the other hand, is much better – the temperature is warmer and farmers are free from harvesting. 

For those of you who have been to Songkran before you know it is quite a celebration. You may want to bring some dry clothes if you join in on the sprinkling perfumed water part of the festival.