Visit our "Buddhist Family holidays" Webpage

[Jundo]

Hi,

At the following "BUDDHIST FAMILY HOLIDAYS" WEBPAGE sponsored by our Sangha, we present ideas for family celebrations of some traditional Buddhist Holidays. These are ideas to involve the entire family, and especially kids as a way to introduce them to the meaning of the holidays and basic Buddhist teachings in a positive, lasting way. We hope to introduce these "child oriented" ideas in addition to preserving all the weight and tradition of our ancient practices (they are not meant to replace traditional holiday events and ceremonies, but to supplement them so that our children understand).

The ideas on our "Buddhist Family Holidays" webpage are a work in progress ... and, we hope, will be further developed and grow with your input. Thus, there is a place for your ideas and comment on each subject, and we look forward to your input and contributions. You may discuss them here as well. Particularly, notice our "holiday song writing" and "story writing & art" sections, where we hope to receive submissions from all our Buddhist musicians, writers, artists, animators and the like who wish to create works that may, we hope, become a beloved part of these holidays for years to come.

For now, our project is centered on the holidays of "Vesak" (commemorating the Birth of Baby Buddha in the spring) and "Bodhi Day/Rohatsu" (commemorating the time of the enlightenment of Buddha, traditionally in December). In the future, we may add other holidays as well.

Please put some or all of the ideas into practice in YOUR HOUSE, and report to us on how it all goes ...

Our webpage is ...

https://www.sites.google.com/site/buddhistfamilyholidays/home

Gassho, Jundo

https://sites.google.com/site/buddhistfamilyholidays/_/rsrc/1298637047810/home/Gassho%20Little%20Girl.jpg?height=200&width=170

[Nenka]

Wow, the site looks great! I look forward to reading some more and coming up with something to contribute. :D

Gassho

Jennifer

[Hogo]

The new site looks great, thanks to all who put their effort, and talent into it.
Gassho ~ Hogo.

[Kyonin]

I don't have kids but I certainly want to celebrate some Buddhist holidays. I specially liked the blanket drive.

Thanks, Jundo! Please let me know if you need help with graphics for this site.

[chicanobudista]

Hope I am not late in saying...gassho....gassho...

[Jundo]

Yes, as the holidays came near ... I still felt that this is in BETA version. Still needs some fine tuning. We will encourage and nurture this a bit more for upcoming holidays and years.

I hope everyone will help us develop the ideas and chip in, giving them a try at home.

Gassho, J

[Jundo]

Hi Guys,

I have fixed the link, which was to our old Forum. In fact, "Buddhist Family Holidays" is one project that never took off around here. I would still like to see it do so in the future.

The idea is very simple: Children raised in Zen Buddhist or mixed Tradition households might enjoy a few simple "new and old Traditions" and activities to convey to them some of the meaning of Buddhist Teachings and Heritage. Parents may want to pass on some of the lessons and values to their kids. These holidays happen to fall very close to the Easter/Passover and Christmas/Chanukah seasons. They are not meant to replace those holidays for those who celebrate such times, so much as to add some Buddhist lessons and customs to those Seasons, and impart some Buddhist meaning to our children. They might offer Buddhist kids something to celebrate with Buddhist values, in a world of Christmas Trees and Santa Claus.

The two holidays now included are Vesak (the historical Buddha's Birthday in the Spring) and Rohatsu (the Buddha's Enlightenment Day in December).

As of now, I have not included Obon, which is primarily a time to honor the deceased Ancestors in Japan, celebrated in July and August. Just yesterday, a member of our Sangha wrote to me to ask if we might commemorate a holiday to remember the dead. There is no plan to add that at this time, but I am open to the possibility (though we really don't believe in death, by the way [scared]). Another possible holiday to consider to celebrate is the historical Buddha's "Parinirvana Day" (the non-end of his life in this world, his non-death) celebrated in February.

Frankly, despite trying to get this going, there has not been much interest around the Sangha in doing this for the kids. Some other Sangha around the US have introduced such activities with mixed success, like this example:

http://www.vzc.org/family_practice.html


I am talking to a couple of folks around here who are parents, and who might be the right person to take command to drum up support among our members to this.


However, really it all sunk like a lead balloon the last couple of years we tried to encourage it. I am hoping we might get it kick-started.

Gassho, J

[Jundo]

Is the site down? I cannot seem to get into it...could be my ISP...

You can access here ...

https://www.sites.google.com/site/buddhistfamilyholidays/home

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Jundo]

FYI only
In Taiwan the Rohatsu is celebrated on December 8th Lunar calendar. There's a sweet dessert called 臘八粥 LAba porridge or Buddha porridge we eat or gift out to commemorate this day. It is made with 8 vegetable-based ingredients mainly sweet rice, red and mug beans, jujube and others.

Gassho

Ju
SAT

Thank you, Judy.

I found some information about this ... and some recipes :) (although maybe you have a better one? :p ) ...



Chinese people across the world gathered at their local Buddhist temples on Wednesday to celebrate the Laba festival by eating specially prepared congee. The festival falls on the eighth day of the 12th month of the lunar calendar—24 January this year—which, according to the Mahayana tradition, is the day the Buddha attained enlightenment.

The word Laba comes from the Chinese name for the 12th lunar month “La” (臘) and “ba” (八), the Chinese word for “eight.” On this day, Chinese people traditionally worship their ancestors, and pray for a bountiful harvest, good health, and fortune, although it was only later in its history that the festival was attributed Buddhist significance.

The festival is also known as Laba Zhu, where zhu has a similar pronunciation to zhou, which means rice porridge. However, this is not the reason why the festival is celebrated by eating congee; just before attaining enlightenment, the Buddha, who was on his last legs in terms of health, was given some curd by a shepherd girl. As Buddhism spread from India to China, the curd was replaced with rice porridge (congee) common in China.

The special rice porridge eaten on this day is known as eight-treasure congee, and usually consists of at least eight different vegetarian ingredients, including rice, beans, fruits, and nuts. The exact ingredients depend on what is grown locally or what is locally available, and therefore ties in closely with the old tradition of praying for a good harvest during the festival. Along with the glutinous rice that makes up the staple ingredient of the congee, a local community might add lotus seeds, black-eyed beans, chickpeas, Chinese mushrooms, carrots, red dates, peanuts, and yams.

The Laba festival is celebrated across China, and everyone eats Laba congee. Buddhist temples cook the congee in bulk and many make the journey to temples to collect their bowl of rice porridge. The temples also distribute free congee at construction sites, communities, hospitals, nursing homes, and welfare houses.

The festival grew in popularity during the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), when the emperor, empress, and princes would offer Laba congee to ministers, or imperial maids. As for the common people, families would get together and cook Laba congee to worship their ancestors.

The Laba festival is also considered to be part of the preparation for Chinese New Year, which follows soon afterwards. Laba therefore serves as a reminder to begin preparations for the lunar new year celebrations and for travelers to return home to reunite with their families.
https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/chinese-buddhist-communities-celebrate-laba-festival


https://youtu.be/q8Vwt-OIo5A


https://www.buddhistdoor.net/upload/file/20180126/15907/47c6fc48aa5b95b6e2e08df79bd66b75_715__2.jpg

Hézhǎng, Chúndào

STLah

[Spiritdove63]

Thank you