BANGKOK, 19 February 2013 The Ministry of Culture is set to organize religious activities later this week to commemorate Makha Bucha Day which falls on February 25 this year.
Culture Minister Sonthaya Khunpleum said Buddhists are invited to participate in mass prayer services and other activities at Sanam Luang during February 21-25. He added that during the Makha Bucha week last year, over 850,000 Buddhists turned up for merit-making activities and Dharma talks at the site.
At Government House, students and representatives from the private sector on Tuesday are handing out prayer books and well-wishing cards to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her cabinet on the occasion of the upcoming Makha Bucha Day.
Makha Bucha Day commemorates two events that occurred on the same day 45 years before the Lord Buddha’s death, about 2,600 years ago. The first event was the convergence of 1,250 monks individually ordained by the Buddha who came from all directions, each on his own initiative, to pay homage to the Buddha on the full moon day of the third lunar month. The second event was that on that evening, the Buddha delivered to the assembly a discourse “Ovatha Patimokha”, laying down the principles of His Teachings. Both of these events occurred on the full-moon day of the third lunar month, a month known in the Buddhist Pali language as ‘Makha’.
