Today is Buddhist Xmas: Vesak 2022

Vesak Day celebrated in Buddhist Vietnam with tourists (vietnam.travel)

Finding a Buddhist temple-complex, monastery (vihara), pagoda, or center to celebrate is getting harder than ever, on account of lingering pandemic fears. The power of the full moon is adding significance this year. The Blood Moon will take place about 8:00 pm Pacific time. The Eight Precepts are taken in the morning and followed throughout the day with a big lunch feast, as this Buddhist festival commemorates the birth of Prince Siddhartha, the making of the Awakened One we call the Buddha through his great enlightenment or mahabodhi, and his final passing away into nirvana, which reputedly all happened on the same day, the full moon day in the month of May (Vesakha on the ancient Indian lunar calendar). Though he was from Scythia (Gandhara, Central Asia), he had traveled to proto-India on his quest for wisdom. Having found it, he began to teach in Bihar (Vihar) to establish an awakened sangha before returning home to lead his extended family to the Dharma and spiritual liberation.

• Vesak: suttacentral.net or accesstoinsight.org

Visit a local Buddhist temple to find out when a celebration is scheduled nearby.