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.

picture from internet: wien-tien

Related Article:

• Asalha Puja and Vassa

Asalha Puja and Vassa

I will have a long weekend this weekend, 5 days including Saturday and Sunday. 7th and 8th are both religious days, 7th is Asalha Puja which was the day the buddha gave the sermon for the first time and he taught about what he found. The Asalha Puja is not exactly on the same date every year. Actually it is always on the fullmoon date on the eight lunar month. If there are 2 eight lonar months in that year, the Asalha Puja will be on the fullmoon date of the latter month.

Well I cant explain about how do we know which year will have 2 eight lunar months. I tried to read about it from some thai websites but I didnt understand about it at all. The best way to know is looking at the calendar!!

8th is a day called Vassa, also called rain retreated. Vassa is the traditional retreat during the rainy season lasting for three lunar months from July to October.

Well since writing about religions is kind of hard for me, so im gonna copy some details about it from wikipedia.

Vassa begins on the first day of the waning moon of the eighth lunar month; the preceding day is Asalha Puja. The focus of celebration by the laity is the first day of Vassa (or Wan Kao Pansa) during which worshippers donate candles and other necessities to temples, in a ceremony which has reached its most extravagant form in the Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival.

During this time Buddhist monks remain in a single place, generally in their temples. In some monasteries, monks dedicate the Vassa to intensive meditation. During Vassa, many Buddhist lay people reinvigorate their spiritual training and adopt more ascetic practices, such as giving up meat, alcohol, or smoking (Vassa is sometimes known as "Buddhist Lent", though at least one prominent Theravada monk has objected to this usage). And in countries such as Thailand, the laity will often take monastic vows for period of Vassa and return to lay life afterwards. Commonly, the number of years a monk has spent in monastic life is expressed by counting the number of Vassas he has observed.

For 6th, originally it was not a government holiday. The government had just announced it to be a holiday for this year so that we could have the long weekend and travel within the country so the country could get more income from it.

Sky Tassel and Garuda

In the picture above is what you can find at any temple in Thailand. When my boyfriend was here in February he saw it at evey temple and asked me what it was. I did some web research for him and found as below.

"Chofah or Sky Tassel is one of the Thai architectural decorative ornament adorns the top at the end of Wat and palaces roof in most of the south east Asia contries, such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and etc.. It resembles a tall thin bird or hornlike, and is generally believed to represent the mythical creature Garuda, half bird and half man, who carried the god Vishnu across the sky. "

What I found more aside from what I got at wikipedia is that some temples with no sky tassel were assumed they were built in the age of the third king with chinese style.

In the picture is a creature called Garuda. Garuda is a large mythical bird or bird-like creature that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology.

Religions and Cultures

This is a page for the links to all of my articles about religions and cultures in Thailand.

• Thai Style Wedding [1]: Morning Part
• Loy Krathong Festival
• Activities at the Temple on Religious Days
• Asalha Puja and Vassa
• Sky Tassel and Garuda
• Songkran: Water Battle at Khao Sarn and Silom Road!