What to do on Buddha's birthday?

The eighth day of April

The eighth day of April was originally the Buddha's Birthday Festival, which belongs to one of the biggest Buddhist festivals in China. Birthday of Sakyamuni.

The tradition of celebrating Buddha's birthday in Buddhism has been preserved in the Buddhist circles in Shanxi Province. Among them, Wutai Mountain is the most magnificent. At that time, the temples will dedicate the statue of Sakyamuni's birth in the Ursa Major Hall. Represents an innocent and lovely child (that is, the statue of the prince) about three inches tall. Naked, pointing to the sky, pointing to the ground. Buddhist legend has it that Sakyamuni was able to stand, walk and speak when he was born. His right hand points to the sky and his left hand points to the ground, which means that "heaven and earth are unique". According to this legend, the statue of the prince is made of copper. Buddhism also said that when Sakyamuni was born, Jiulong spit water to bathe him. At the beginning of the celebration ceremony of Buddha's birthday, a pot of fragrant soup specially made of dry land lotus and Taiwan Province ginseng should be placed in front of the statue of the prince. Presided over the monks lighting lamps, burning incense, offering confessions, kneeling for nine times and prostrating themselves to the ground. All the monks chanted sutras, drums and music, and chanted chapters, praising Sakyamuni's great contribution to the human world. After that, bathe the statue of the prince with fragrant soup. After bathing, chanting, dancing and singing, it is repeated many times, which is called the Buddhist therapy conference. The law meeting is over, and so is dinner. Then I took a bath in the Buddhist incense field and went back to the monk's room to bathe myself with boiling water in order to get positive results as soon as possible.

The Buddha's Birthday Festival spread to the people and formed a temple fair. For example, Shouyang County holds the Temple Fair of Heaven and Buddha on the eighth day of April every year to offer sacrifices to the Buddha. There will be a sea of people and great excitement.

In folk inheritance, the Buddha's Birthday Festival has evolved into many places to commemorate other gods and other folk activities.

In Datong, Yanggao and some counties in northwest Shanxi, the Buddha's Birthday Festival has evolved into a grandmother's temple fair. The object of sacrifice changed from male to female, and the foreign gods became local gods. "Grandmother God", also known as "Grandmother Songzi", is usually accompanied by various stories, which are very popular among local people and seem mysterious and bizarre. In addition to treating all diseases, exorcising evil spirits and praying for blessings, his magical power also has a magical ability to send children to families expecting them. As long as the admirer is sincere, he can get a child. Of course, this seems superstitious today, but it has a great influence in history, reflecting the traditional psychology of the Chinese nation, that is, "there are three kinds of unfilial, all of which are great."

There are many salt ponds in Yuncheng area, and the folklore was left over by the Yellow Emperor when he fought Chiyou on the eighth day of April. April 8 will be dedicated to this event. Legend has it that in order to distinguish between the enemy and ourselves during the war, the soldiers of the Yellow Emperor wore saponin leaves on their heads, and the soldiers of Chiyou wore locust leaves on their heads. Finally, the yellow emperor defeated all things. Today's people are descendants of the Yellow Emperor. To commemorate the victory of our ancestors, men, women and children would wear Gleditsia sinensis leaves on their heads at that time. Later, it became a custom.

On April 8th, the temple fair in Lingshi County, in the backyard of Miao Jie Temple, peony flowers were in full bloom, colorful and elegant, and many people went to watch it. This is commonly known as the "God Flower Fair".

The temple fair on the eighth day of April in Xiangning County is called the Oil Cake Fair by the people. During the conference, there were as many as forty or fifty oil cake stalls in a small mountain town with less than one square kilometer. Those who hurried to the meeting were proud of having eaten enough oil cakes. Some people in rural areas can't go to the county seat because of old age or illness, so they can only ask people to buy back a few packets of oil cakes and share their fun at home.

On the eighth day of April in Linxian County, women will go to Changshou Mountain (a Zhenwu Mountain) to burn incense and pray. There is an ancient poem circulating in the local area: "Sweat is light and fog is heavy, and colorful skirts are full of stains." He Nong is unwilling to return the incense, but willing to climb the rugged Changshou Mountain. "It vividly describes the scene and mentality of people worshipping incense.

The eighth day of April has also evolved into a festival to commemorate Guan Sheng. The Ming version of Datong Prefecture records: "On April 8, all walks of life dedicated themselves to Guan Sheng Temple for a few days, which was very clean." Guan Jun refers to Guan Yu, a famous Shu-Han scholar in the Three Kingdoms, whose ancestral home was Shaanxi. In history, people say that he has great ambition, great wisdom and great courage, and he is praised and worshipped by later generations. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism respect each other as guests and are canonized as gods by feudal rulers. In the old Guandi Temple, there is a pair of couplets. The first pair is "Han, Wang, Fu Moda"; The second part is "Confucianism calls the emperor, Buddhism calls the Buddha, and Taoism calls the source straight but not respectful", which is the most typical summary of Guan Yu's image. Yuncheng Jiezhou is Guan Yu's hometown. Jiezhou Guandi Temple is the largest Guandi Temple in China. During the temple fair, people in Fiona Fang county (city) will attend the rally.

On the eighth day of April, Jinnan area is used to making "bulging buds" with alfalfa flour, and children should pick apricots to eat. As the saying goes: "On April 8th, alfalfa blooms and young apricots are eaten (pronounced in local language)".

Buddha's birthday on the eighth day of April

Every year, the eighth day of the eighth lunar month is Sakyamuni's birthday. The Buddha was born 2500 years ago, near Nepal today. His original names were Gautama and Siddhartha, and he was the son of King suddhodana of Garuda. Siddhartha has experienced countless generations of practice, and this life is the last time to turn back to become a Buddha.

The Buddha came to the world, and after countless times of practice, he finally realized the supreme right path. In Luo Ku Ya Weng, he preached to the five monks the way of Hinayana liberation, that is, the method of "four truths and eight right paths", saying that "all actions are impermanent", "all laws have no ego", "Nirvana is silent", "suffering the way", "right view" and "mindfulness".

In order to get rid of it, it is called the Great Bodhisattva in the sky, and there are other Mahayana classics: Lotus Sutra, Prajna Sutra, Knowledge Sutra and Tathagata Sutra.

With the great desire of crossing people, the Buddha has been full of blessings to all doomed beings for more than two thousand years, and has made great achievements in the world and in the world. Anyone who prays to Buddha and practices Buddhism, even if he practices only a little, can be blessed through induction!

Every year on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, many people go to temples to pray for the blessing of Buddha and Bodhisattva, hoping that everything will be "prosperous".