The Magha Puja is regarded as the Buddhist Holy day and is duly a national holiday in Thailand, usually held on a full-moon day in the third month, that is March. The day is considered auspicious and has great significance because of the following four main reasons:
On this day 1250 Arahantas (the holy one, the worthy one, and the accomplished one) from various places arrived and came together at the Veruvana Temple, Rajgarh city. Each of the Arahantas were respectively ordained by the Buddha. All the Arahantas arrived with no prior intimation and entirely on their own. It was a full moon day.
The concurrence of all the above four events marks the “Jaturongkasannibath” . On this day, Lord Buddha gave the holy sermon “Ovadha Patimokha” to the Arahantas. The essential themes of the lecture are:
* Commit no sins
* All actions should be to do good
* Purify self and the mind
The Magha Puja day is supposed to be the beginning and spread of Buddhism to Thailand and the other neighboring countries.
The Thai use this day to perform merit makings. Food items are prepared and given away to the monks. Dhama, a technique of meditation and mind cleansing, is usually practiced by the older people today. Many people also stay the nights at the temple.
A candle procession is held in the evening. Around 6 pm, the monks and the priests arrive at the main temple (Bod) and the procession is led by the chief monk. People come together and floral decorations along with candles and joss sticks are used. Once the prayer ceremony is over, the people follow the procession led by the monks around the main temple or the Bod. This particular part of the day has great significance and implies the importance of the teachings of Lord Buddha – of being kind, committing no sins, and cleansing self.
Visiting Bangkok during the Magha Puja holiday and festival can be a spiritually enlightening experience. If you visit Bangkok during this time period, check out the Bangkok apartment accommodation for an affordable stay in the city. A Bangkok service apartment will provide you with all the modern conveniences for a much more economical rate than most city center hotels.
Naveen Marasinghe is an Online Marketing Executive at eMarketingEye which is a search engine marketing agency that offers integrated Internet marketing solutions and specializes in serving the online travel and hospitality industry. (http://www.emarketingeye.com/ )
