Pattaya Buddhists marked Makha Bucha Day with traditional candle processions and prayers.
At Wat Chaimongkol Temple, Abbot Phra Anan Thammachaito led the March 6 ceremonies, with monks chanting holy stanzas and believers offering alms and making merit.
The holiday was celebrated with a temple fair featuring booths offering inexpensive food and goods. Then, that night, believers joined monks in a triple circumambulation of the sermon hall with candles and joss sticks.
Makha Bucha Day marks the anniversary of Lord Buddha giving a sermon on the main principles of the Buddhism, called “the Ovadhapatimokha” to 1,250 monks who came together miraculously with no prearranged agreement at Weluwan Mahawiharn Temple in the area of Rachakhryha, India on the full moon of the third lunar month. Those basic principles are to cease from all evil, to do good deeds, and to cleanse the mind.
