Buddhist Lent Day
Khao Phansa Festival
Buddhist Lent Day is a period of three lunar months during the rainy season when monks are required to remain in one particular place or wat (temple). Khao Phansa Day is on the first day after the full moon of the eighth lunar month (this year is on July 14th,2003) and marks the beginning of the three-month Buddhist 'lent' period. The tradition of Buddhist Lent or the annual three-month rains retreat known in Thai as "Phansa". Khao Phansa means to remain in one place during the rainy season. Phansa represents a time of renewed spiritual vigor and Khao Phansa festival is a major Buddhism merit-making festival.
The day before Khao Phunsa Day is Asalha Puja Day. The day falls on the full moon of the eighth lunar month (July 13th,2003). This day is also very important in Buddhism. It was on this day that the Lord Buddha preached His sermon to followers after attaining enlightenment. The day is usually celebrated by merit making, listening to a monk's sermon, and joining a candle lit procession during the night.
During Khao Phunsa period monks should not venture out or spend the night in any other place except in cases of extreme emergency and, even then, their time away must not exceed seven consecutive nights. This is a time for contemplation and meditation for monk. The mork meditates more, studies more and teaches more. For Buddist Phansa is also customarily the season for temporary ordinations. Young men enter the monkhood for spiritual training, to gain merit for for themselves and their parents, it is a feeling that a man who has been a monk cannot be considered a mature adulf.
Khao Phansa Day marks the end of the Buddhist lent and falls on the full moon of the eleventh lunar month (October 10th,2003). This is a day of joyful celebration and merit-making too. For Thai families, it is also the day they welcome a son back into the home and celebrate his successful completion of a term in the temple.
Two main important things will present to monks during Khao Pansa are the candles and garments worn by monks, especifically the bathing robe. The candles were essential in former times for both ceremonies and studying scriptures during night time. The large candles that are made and given to the temple to create illumination in the belief that such a gift will likewise illuminate the mind. The presentation of garments worn by monks is said to have originated from methods of bathing in former times commonly done in community areas using streams, rivers, ponds and other sources of water with monks requiring a bathing robe. The garments worn by monks continued to develop until the custom included presenting the entire arrangement worn by monks