Activities at the Temple on Religious Days

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Activities at the Temple on Religious Days

On 7th of July 2009, Asalha Puja day, I woke up so early in the morning to go to the temple. I wrote about it in the last entry that it is an important religious day, the day that the buddha gave the first sermon and the day that we got the first monk for buddhism.

When i got to the temple, i saw lots of food stands and many people there. If you dont prepare any food from your house you can buy it at the temple.

Right, we went to the temple to give monks food. Monks eat only twice a day, breakfast and lunch. They have breakfast at 8 am and lunch before noon. They are not allowed to eat after 12 pm till the next day in the morning everyday. Only drink allowed. So if you invite them for any activities, it is very important to let them have lunch before noon.

Well you may ask why do we have to give them food. In buddhism we are taught to offer to other people and one of the ways is by giving monks food. If you are here, you may see monks in the morning walking around with an alms bolw. We call that Bin-ta-bart, บิณฑบาต, and we call what we did to them, put the offerings food in their bowls, Sai-bart, ใส่บาต.

On religious days monks will not go Bin-ta-bart but we will go to the temple and offer our food to them there, same as Asalha Puja. My mom prepare food from home. We put the rice and food in the containers they prepare for us.

Before we enter the building we have to take off our shoes. Sometimes we lost them by mistake or they might got stolen by someone there, so I suggest you wear the old ones.

Since the next day was Vassa, the first day monks starts to stay in the temple for 3 months, we made them some big candles to use at the temple during the 3 months. We wrote our names on the piece of wax and threw it in the hot pan to melt it and then we poured it in the mold.

We also do one thing everytime we go to the temple, Sang-ka-tan, สังฆทาน. Sang-ka-tan is similar to Sai-bart but it is different that we dont offer food. What we offer via Sang-ka-tan are things that monks will use for his daylife such as medicine, toothpaste, toothbrush, torch, umbrella, and whatever you can think of.

The last thing we do at the temple on religious day is Wein-tien, เวียนเทียน, walk around the temple with flowers, jot-sticks and candles in our hands.