45 years before the Buddhist era, on the full moon day of the 3rd lunar month, and exactly 9 full months after Lord Buddha achieved Enlightenment, 4 special things happened:
1) 1,250 Sangha followers, came to see the Lord Buddha at Wat Veḷuvana in Northern India, without any schedule.
2) All of them were “Arhantas’, the Enlightened One, and all of them were ordained by the Buddha himself.
3) The Buddha gave an important teaching to the followers on the principles of the Buddhism, called “The Ovadhapatimokha”. Those principles are: To cease from all evil; to do what is good; to cleanse one’s mind.
4) It was a full moon day which made it as special day to start with.
On the same day 44 years later another important event happened. It was this day that the Buddha decided to ‘Parinibbhana’, nirvana, leave the mind from the body (or die) which he did 3 months after that day on the full moon day of the six lunar month (This day is known as ‘Visakha Bucha Day’).
As a Buddhist country Makha Bucha days is an important day in the Thai calendar and is respected in a number of ways.