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Wesak (also Vesak or Vesakha, and in Sanskrit, वैशाख Vaiśākha) is the name of a month on the lunar calendar of ancient India. In Buddhism it has come to mean the full-moon day of that month (May 8 of the Gregorian calendar in 2009).
It was on this day, eighty years after his birth, that the Buddha passed into parinirvana (final release). Both events, birth and passing, occurred on the full-moon day of the same month. In between these events, something more important happened: He became enlightened on the same full-moon day (in different years of course).
Buddhists around the world therefore consider it a thrice blessed day. Buddhists and well-wishers go to large temple festivities, rededicate themselves to practice the Path that leads to the end of all suffering, and renew their undertaking to uphold the Five Precepts.
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