Indian Festivals - Buddhist Festivals

Festivals of India - Buddhist Festivals

Buddha Purnima:

Buddha Jayanti or also known as Buddha Purnima is the most sacred festivals of Buddhist. Buddha Purnima (Buddha Birthday) is celebrated in remembrance Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha is the founder of Buddhism. This day is the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha. It falls on the full moon of the fourth lunar month (month of Vaisakh) i.e. April or May.

Considered to be the ninth avatar of Vishnu. Buddha Jayanti or Buddha Purnima is marked as the most important day, commomerating the three most significant events in the life of Gautama Buddha that occurred on the same day.

His birth, enlightenment and death (nirvana), all happened in the month of Vaishak, on a full moon night in April/May. Thus, this makes the day - called Buddha Purnima Festival or Buddha Jayanti Festival- all the more sacred for Buddhists.

This day is a thrice blessed day. Lord Buddha is considered the ninth avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu (Preserver in the Hindu Holy Trinity of Creator-Preserver-Destroyer). Gautam Buddha "lived and died in about the fifth century before the Christian era". Buddha means "enlightened one" - someone who is completely freefrom all faults and mental obstructions.

Gautam Buddha was not a god and the philosophy of Buddhism does not entail any theistic world-view. The teachings of the Buddha are solely to liberate human beings from the misery and sufferings of life.

Indian Festivals - Buddhist Festivals