Buddhist Festivals
Festivals
Sakyamuni's birthday, his achievement of enlightenment, and his entry into nirvana are the occasions for the three foremost festivals for Buddhists the world over. However, they are marked on different dates in China than they are in Southeast Asia. The Chinese Buddhists (for the Han area) celebrate Sakyamuni's birthday on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month (on the 15th day of the fourth lunar month for areas inhabited by Mongolians and Tibetans, and on any of the 10 days before or after the April 5 Qingming Festival for the Dai areas) and his achievement of Enlightenment on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month, and commemorate his entering nirvana on the 15th day of the second lunar month. For followers of Theravada Buddhism in Southeastern Asian countries, these festivals fall on the same day, the 15th day of the fourth lunar month (the day of the full moon in May).
The birthday of the Buddha is a major red-letter day for Buddhists around the world. In monasteries, the “Bathing the Buddha” Ceremony is held in pomp and pageantry, and lay Buddhists congregate at a local temple for the occasion. During the ceremony, a clean basin filled to near capacity with sandalwood-soaked water is placed in front of the statue of Sakyamuni in the Mahavira Hall. Placed in state in the basin is a figurine of Sakyamuni several inches in height and appearing as a newborn infant, the Prince Siddhartha, pointing one hand upward to the sky and the other hand downward to the ground. In this posture he declares, as the legend has it, “Both in heaven and on earth, I’m the one and only respected one.”
When the followers have queued up in the Mahavira Hall, a monk will lead the crowd in singing hymns and chanting incantations. Then they all begin circumambulating the basin, and take turns bathing the baby prince by using a tiny ladle to pour water over him while the smooth litany of “Namah Sakyamuni Our Lord” rises from every corner of the building. The duration of the ceremony may differ with the size of the congregation, but generally it lasts for two hours. The Birthday of the Buddha is an occasion for joy, and so the followers all celebrate it in a jubilant spirit.
The festivals marking Sakyamuni’s achievement of Enlightenment and nirvana are based on legend instead of history. In Buddhist temples in China, no ceremony is observed on either occasion. They are, however, generally marked by adding certain passages to the incantations to be chanted in the hall. However, on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month, Chinese Buddhist temples are in the habit of dispensing laba porridge prepared of cereal, beans, nuts, and dried fruit among patrons to mark Sakyamuni’s achievement of Enlightenment.
The pantheon of Chinese Buddhism in the Mahayana tradition includes quite a few Buddhas and bodhisattvas apart from Sakyamuni. A series of festivals are dedicated to them. For example:
1st day of 1st lunar month: Birthday of Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future
19th day of 2nd lunar month: Birthday of Avalokitesvara, the Goddess of Mercy
21st day of 2nd lunar month: Birthday of Samantabhadra, the Bodhisattva of Universal Benevolence
4th day of 4th lunar month: Birthday of Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom
19th day of 6th lunar month: Festival of Avalokitesvara’s achievement of Enlightenment
13th day of 7th lunar month: Birthday of Mahasthamaprapta, the bodhisattva representing the Buddha-wisdom of Amitabha
30th day of 7th lunar month: Birthday of Kshitigarbha, the bodhisattva who protects children and travelers and intervenes in Hell for those suffering there
19th day of 9th lunar month: Anniversary of the Tonsuring of Avalokitesvara as a monk
30th day of 9th lunar month: Birthday of Bhaisajyaguru, the Buddha of Healing and Medicine
17th day of 11th lunar month: Birthday of Amitabha, the Buddha of Immeasurable Splendor
These festivals are generally observed with simple ceremonies in Chinese monasteries, and are not taken seriously because they are based mostly on legends rather than historical facts. Among them, however, the festivals associated with Avalokitesvara, that is, the Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin), are more popular because worship of the goddess is widespread in this country, especially among women.
Major Functions
Morning and evening recitations of incantations are daily activities in a Chinese temple. Activities are also organized on special occasions, generally for two purposes: to intensify self-discipline and cultivation, and to pray for other people or expiate the sins of the dead. These include:
(1) Water-and-Land Service. A major religious activity among Chinese monks, the Water-and-Land Service (水陆大斋: large-scale alms-giving activity in Buddhism) was initiated by Xiao Yan (502-548), Emperor Wudi of the Liang during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Legend has it that Xiao Yan dreamed of a celestial monk saying to him, “To go through the six cycles of transmigrations (六道, or six-way samsara: deva-gati 天, of deva existence; manusya-gati 人, of human existence; asura-gati 阿修罗, of malevolent nature spirits; naraka-gati 地狱, or that of the hells; preta-gati 饿鬼, of hungry ghosts; tiryagyoni-gati 畜生, of animals – which represent the six directions of reincarnations in a cycle that has no beginning and can be ended only by Enlightenment) and the four forms of birth (四生, or catur-yoni: jarayuja 胎生, viviparous, as with mammalia; 四生 and aja 卵生, oviparous, as with birds; samsvedaja 湿生, moisture, or water-born, as with worms and fishes; aupapaduka 化生, metaphorphic, as with moths from the chrysalis, or with devas, or in the hells, or the first being in a newly evolved world.) involves untold sufferings. Why don’t you perform the water-and-land service to deliver the souls of the dead from misery?” After he woke up from the dream he consulted Baozhi, a famous monk of the day, who suggested that he consult the sutras for an answer. After three years of intensive reading of the Buddhist scriptures, Xiao Yan composed the “Water-and-Land Rhapsody,” had an altar built in the Jinshan Temple at Runzhou (present-day Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province), and invited monks of the temple to perform the Water-and-Land Service to redeem the souls inhabiting the waters and the land.
This religious ritual was rather simple in the beginning. During the Xianheng reign (670-672) of the Tang Dynasty, it was combined with the esoteric Buddhist service to offer sacrifices to ghosts, and became very fashionable during the Song Dynasty. Xiao Yan’s “Water-and-Land Rhapsody” has been repeatedly revised and added to until it has become the version we see today.
The Water-and-Land Service is an elaborate and grand occasion that takes place on the internal altar and external altars in a temple, but most of the rituals are performed on the internal altar, which is therefore more solemnly decorated for this purpose. Altogether there are six external altars: the Primary Altar, manned by 24 monks who recite the Confession of the Emperors of the Liang; the Sutra-recitation Altar, where seven monks read aloud all kinds of Buddhist scriptures; the Fahua Altar, where seven monks chant the Saddharmapundarika-sutra (Lotus Sutra); and the Yogacara Altar, manned by a team of monks whose task is to appease fire-spitting hungry ghosts once a night. The entire Water-and-Land Service lasts for seven days and nights, and it is generally funded by affluent patrons. Today, it has evolved into a Water-Land-Air Service because of the fact that air crashes have become common disasters throughout the globe.
(2) The ritual to offer alms to fire-spitting hungry ghosts. This service to redeem the souls of the deceased is closely related to Tantrism. The Esoteric sect of Chinese Buddhism all but disappeared towards the end of the Tang Dynasty, but the ritual to appease the hungry spirits by offering them alms has survived. The ritual is derived from a scripture translated into Chinese by Amoghavajra（705-775）, an Indian monk residing in China. According to this scripture, when Ananda was cultivating himself in his meditation room, the king of fire-spitting hungry ghosts said to him, “You will die and find yourself living among hungry ghosts in three days. If you do not want to suffer, you had better give me a serving of food today and tomorrow.” Ananda reported this to the Buddha, who taught him what incantations he should chant when handing out the alms. These incantations thus became part of a Buddhist’s daily meditation ritual. After the Song Dynasty, different versions of alms-giving incantations appeared, and only in the recent past was a unified version adopted to be routinely performed at the end of any major religious ceremony.
(3) Seven-day Period of Self-Cultivation. This period is divided into two seven-day phases in which a monk is required to intensify his meditation or chanting the Buddha’s name. It is said that some monks have achieved Enlightenment through intensive self-cultivation during these seven-day phases in which a monk is supposed to keep meditating or chanting except when he is eating or sleeping. There will be no absence, no going outdoors, and no contact whatsoever with the outside world.
(4) Liturgy for Confession. This is yet another form of self-cultivation. There are a number of texts to be chanted for this ritual, including the Thousand-Buddha Confession, Ten-Thousand-Buddha Confession, Confessions of Emperors of the Liang Dynasty, The Confession of Great Mercy, and the Water Confession. These confessions vary in length and are selected to meet specific requirements. Each confession consists of a text to be read aloud, as well as the names and titles of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, which are to be worshiped during the ritual. Through the Liturgy for Confession, a monk hopes to own up to his misdeeds, repent for them, and ask the Buddha and bodhisattvas for forgiveness.
(5) Ullambana, the Festival in Memory of Ancestry. This is a routine ceremony held in a monastery on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month every year to redeem the souls of ancestors. According to the Ullambana Sutra, Mahamaudgalyayana, one of the ten major disciples of Sakyamuni, acquired divyacaksus (instantaneous view of anything anywhere) and found that his deceased mother was suffering among hungry ghosts. Wanting to come to his mother’s rescue, he asked the Buddha for instruction. The Buddha told him to perform the Ullambana Service, at which he was supposed to offer generous delicacies to fete the hungry ghosts. By this virtuous deed he could deliver his mother from the misery. “Ullam” is a Sanskrit term that means “hang something upside down,” and “bana” denotes utensils for holding alms. Using the “bana” to offer alms can immediately deliver the hungry ghosts from the pain of being hung upside down. The Ullambana Service is performed in Chinese monasteries for monks to show great mercy for those in misery.
(6) Home service to recite sutras and worship. This ritual, which has been mentioned in Chapter 6, involves monks of a monastery going to a lay follower’s home to chant sutras or confessional texts for him or her. It is rather popular in south China and is a major source of income for many monasteries. Whenever someone has died in the family, a lay Buddhist is obliged to send for monks to perform religious rituals to redeem the soul of the deceased. By paying a certain amount of money, a patron has the right to decide how many monks to hire, for how long the ritual should last, what sutras or confessional texts are to be chanted, and where this ritual should be performed. After a monastery has received such an assignment, the monks go out of their way to meet the patron’s requirements. Every monastery has set prices for this service, and the monks assigned the job are also paid. However, many temples refuse to offer this service in the belief that offering this service is tantamount to selling the Law of the Buddha for money and therefore blasphemous to the good name of Buddhism.
(7) Worshipping Service. Followers of Buddhism believe that to chant sutras and make confessions not only help redeem the souls of the deceased but also are conducive to warding themselves off from disasters and prolonging their lives. The monks of a monastery are often asked to render a hand in such services. A patron may request the monastery to hold a special service for him. He may also ask the monastery to chant and pray for him in passing during a routine session in the Sutra Chanting Hall. In the process, the patron is obliged to hand out red envelopes containing a certain amount of cash among the monks as his donation. This service is offered even in monasteries that refuse to offer compensated home services.
