This presentation aims to introduce KS2 children to the concept of Meditation in Buddhism.
This presentation aims to introduce KS2 children to the concept of Meditation in Buddhism.
This presentation aims to introduce KS2 children to the concept of Karma in Buddhism.
6th September 2025
Buddhist (Chinese)
Chinese Buddhist and ancestral festival, often called the ‘Festival of Hungry Ghosts’. Paper objects for use in the spirit world are made and offered to aid those spirits who have no resting place or descendants. Large paper boats are made and burnt at temples to help these spirits on their journey across the sea of torment to Nirvana.
Buddhists and Taoists participate in rituals throughout the Hungry Ghost Month but particularly on the Hungry Ghost Festival. It is thought that the gates of hell are open throughout the Hungry Ghost Month, but that they are most open on this night. It is believed hungry and wayward ghosts often come to visit the living.
Many believers refrain from going out after the dark for fear they may encounter a ghost. They are also extra cautious near water as the ghosts of people who die by drowning are considered particularly troublesome, especially when they wander around the living world.
The Hungry Ghost Festival often begins with a parade where decorated lanterns in various shapes, including boats and houses, are placed on decorated floats. The paper lanterns are then carried to the water, lit, and released. The glowing lanterns and boats are meant to give directions to lost souls and help ghosts and deities find their way to the food offerings. The paper lanterns eventually catch fire and sink.
At some Hungry Ghost festivals, as Keelung in Taiwan, a Chinese character of a family’s last name is placed on the lantern that the family has sponsored. It is believed the further the lantern floats on the water, the more good fortune the family will have in the coming year.
Offering food and support to ancestors and their spirits brings fulfilment, both to those who perform it and to those whose role is to be recipients of it.
16th January 2025
Buddhist
Shinran Shonin (1173-1262) was the founder of Jodo Shin-shu (or Shin Buddhism), one of the schools of Pure Land Buddhism. It is celebrated by some Mahayana Buddhists.
25th January 2025
Buddhist
Honen (1133-1212 CE) is one of the outstanding figures in the history of Japanese Buddhism, and was the founder of Jodo Shinshu, one of the schools of Pure Land Buddhism.
8th February (or 15th February) 2025
Buddhist
Mahayanists mark the final passing away from this world of Gautama Buddha at Kushinagara, India, at the age of 80. Pure Land Buddhists refer to it as Nirvana Day.
The Buddha’s last days are described in the Pali text called the Great Parinirvana Sutra (Parinirvana meaning “completed nirvana“). The Buddha’s living nirvana (achieved during enlightenment) at death transforms to nirvana without any human residue. Self-possessed, without psychological pain, untroubled by the thoughts of death, the Buddha identified four places of future pilgrimage: the sites of his birth, enlightenment, first sermon, and death. “But” he added, “don’t hinder yourself by honouring my remains.”
Here is the heart of all Buddhist teaching about Life and Death, where entry into nirvana is the goal of all being, as shown to us today in the perfect example all Buddhists seek to emulate.
30th January 2025
Buddhist
Tibetan New Year festival, but it is often celebrated in Nepal as well. Although largely a secular celebration, it also includes the rededication of the country to Buddhism. It especially celebrates the miracles performed by the historical Buddha at Sravasti, the capital city of the kingdom of Kosala.
It usually falls on or around the date of the Chinese New Year.
12th February 2025
Buddhist
This festival commemorates two occasions, one that took place in the month of Magha, seven weeks after the Buddha’s enlightenment. Five of his companions from his years of austerity had joined him and he taught them the Four Noble Truths; the other occasion was 45 years later, when 1,250 enlightened personal disciples of the Buddha came spontaneously to the Bamboo Grove at Rajagaha on the full moon of Magha (usually in late February or early March). This was one of the earliest large gatherings of Buddhists. On that day the Buddha taught the main principles of the Dhamma and set out his teachings to the assembled arahats (enlightened monks) for them to learn and follow.
On this later Magha Puja Day, the Buddha spoke to his disciple Ananda and told him that he was near the end of his life and had chosen to die in three months time. He also outlined a summary of his teachings and a code of discipline (which monks are expected to recite every fortnight). Magha Puja Day thus brackets the Buddha’s teaching life, providing a reason as to why it is one of the most important Buddhist festivals. The day is normally observed with several hours of meditation, chanting and listening to sermons.
All 1250 of these monks were direct disciples of the Buddha, having been ordained by him at various stages of his life. As a result of this gathering of disciples, the full moon of Magha has also come to be known as ‘Sangha day’ and is a time when monks gather together to share their knowledge and experiences. In the West it falls towards the end of winter when many of the monasteries have just finished a long retreat, and such a gathering is a joyous time. Many will not have seen each other for some months, and with the arising of spring and the end of a long retreat there is much for them to share.
The day involves reflection on what it means to be part of the sangha – this including the fourfold sangha: lay men and women, monks and nuns; but because of the origin of the event it tends not to be so significant for lay people. For the ordained community who have come together there may be a series of meetings to discuss various aspects of the community’s teachings, periods of group meditation, talks given by senior members of the community (both resident and visiting) and a variety of other events – often quite spontaneous – over a period of several days.
In Thailand, by contrast, it is very much a holiday time. At every Buddhist temple, Buddhists gather after dark. They bring flowers, incense, & candles. When these are lit, the worshippers circle the temple’s main hall three times, once for each of the Three Jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Sangha, and the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha).
8th April 2025
Buddhist (Japanese)
This flower festival marks the Japanese celebration of the Buddha Shakyamuni’s birthday, which Mahayana Buddhists fix at 565 BCE. The flowers accentuate the tradition that the Buddha was born in a garden, so floral shrines are made and an image of the infant Buddha is set in it and bathed.
The original Japanese Flower Festival (hana, ‘flower’, matsuri, ‘festival’) was observed to encourage fruit trees to flower early; at the time, the farming community believed that the longer the blossoming, the more prosperous the harvest. Buddhism spread to Japan in the 6th century CE, and sometime around 600 CE the hanamatsuri festival became incorporated into the celebration of the Buddha’s birthday.
Nowadays a special altar—the hanamido—is erected and decorated with flowers representing the garden in Lumbini, southern Nepal, where it is said that Queen Maya went into labour. An image of the infant Buddha is placed in a pan and, in a ritual known as kanbutsu, water or sweet tea is poured over it in remembrance of the “sweet rain” that descended from heaven at the moment of the birth.
It is told that when Buddha Shakyamuni was born, birds sang and flowers bloomed in honour of his arrival. Pointing with his right hand to heaven and with his left hand to earth, the new born child took seven steps, prophesying that he would become a great sage and deliver humanity from suffering.
Hanamatsuri is predominately a Mahayana festival whereas Theravadin Buddhists observe the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and entrance into nirvana during the festival of Wesak, held in May at the time of the full moon.
While Buddhists of all traditions find meaning in these miracle stories of the events of his birth, they are also careful to point to his specific role as a wise teacher whose role was to signpost the way to enlightenment and nirvana.
12th May 2025
Buddhist
On Wesak Theravadin Buddhists celebrate the birth, the enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya in North India, and the final passing away of Gautama Buddha. Mahayanist Buddhists have separate days for each of these events but on Buddha Day they celebrate both the birth and the enlightenment of the Buddha. They also celebrate his enlightenment on Bodhi Day in December. It is common in almost all Buddhist traditions to decorate the houses where Buddhists live with lanterns and garlands, and the temples are ringed with little oil lamps, consisting of a simple cloth or cotton wick in a small clay vessel of oil. Many Buddhists also send ‘Wesak cards’ to their friends.
On this day particular stress is laid on the Buddha’s enlightenment and many lay people come together at monasteries for this, the biggest of all the Buddhist festivals. No matter how important the Dharma and the Sangha may be in Buddhist belief and practice, it is the Buddha himself who is the central figure and originator of Buddhist teaching, and the celebration at this festival of his enlightenment is of central importance to all Buddhist communities.