Vesak Day is celebrated around the world and what is its history?
The Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple is lit during the annual Buddhist festival of Vesak in Colombo
The lunar month of Vaisakha is considered to be the month of the Buddha’s birth and derives from the Pali term vesākha or the Sanskrit word vaiśākha. In 2022, Vesak falls on 8 May for Buddhists in China, Vietnam and in the Philippines, 15 May for those in Singapore, Thailand and Sri Lanka, and 16 May for Buddhists in Indonesia, India and Nepal. The dates differ because Vesak depends on different Asian lunisolar calendars, but the festival will always fall in April, May or early June.
If a month has two full moons, some countries such as Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Malaysia will celebrate on the first full moon, and others such as Thailand and Singapore will celebrate Vesak on the second full moon. Vesak is a festival celebrating Gautama Buddha, who was a spiritual teacher in South Asia in the 5th Century BC. The Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, was born as a prince, who thought wealth and luxury did not guarantee happiness.
It is said he found enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, now a religious site in India, after travelling around the world as a homeless man, studying and meditating for six years. The Buddha practised a life of asceticism, a life absent of sensual pleasures for spiritual gain, but taught a middle way between asceticism and sensual indulgence. After becoming an Enlightened being, he taught others a path to freedom from ignorance, craving, rebirth and suffering.