Top five impressive festivals at Ba Vang Pagoda not to be missed

Ba Vang Pagoda is currently a focal point attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists to visit. Besides the advantageous geographic location and the natural scenery of green mountains and forest, every year, Ba Vang Pagoda also has many unique and impressive festivals. The following article will introduce five festivals at Ba Vang Pagoda that you should not miss.

1. The 1st lunar month - The Opening Ceremony of Spring Festival

Spring is the season of blooming flowers, also the season of festivals across the country. Since ancient times, Vietnamese people have often spent January going on spring trips and paying homage to the Buddha, praying for a new year with many good things.  

  Every year, Ba Vang Pagoda organizes the Opening Ceremony of Spring Festival on the eighth day of the lunar first month so that everyone can visit the Pagoda to pay homage to the Buddha, form a connection with the Three Jewels and learn wholesome things through the Buddha's teachings.

2. The 4th lunar month - The Buddha's Birthday Celebration

“The Buddha was born to bring the light of truth to mankind and all beings. That light dispels the dark of the ignorant mind where all the sins and suffering in this life originate. Shakyamuni Buddha therefore is truly the Great Master of all beings."-Thay Thich Truc Thai Minh.

Annually, on the 8th day of the fourth lunar month, Ba Vang Pagoda holds the Buddhas Birthday Celebration. This is a particularly important occasion for Buddhists to commemorate and show their gratitude to the World-Honoured One. The Buddha's Birthday Celebration is moreover a wonderful condition for the propagation of the Buddha Dharma.

3. The 6th lunar month - The ceremony to develop the Bodhi Mind and pray for the release of unborn babies spirits

The Bodhi Mind can be considered the essence of the Buddha Dharma, the enlightened mind which brings forth all merits. Celebrating the enlightenment of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva (on the nineteenth day of the sixth lunar month), Ba Vang Pagoda annually holds a ceremony to develop the Bodhi Mind so that Buddhists can initiate a great mind, taking a vow to practise the Dharma until achieving perfect enlightenment.

4. The 7th lunar month - Ullambana Festival – the ceremony of filial piety

Ullambana Festival, also known as the ceremony of filial piety is not only a Buddhist festival but also a national one. Thay Thich Truc Thai Minh once said, “In sutras, the Buddha greatly praises the mind and the virtue of filial piety. The mind of filial piety is the mind of Buddhas. The virtue of filial piety is the virtue of Buddhas.” Every annual seventh lunar month, Ba Vang Pagoda holds Ullambana Festival in the hope of reminding people of filial piety and repaying the debt of gratitude to ancestors, grandparents and parents of many lives.

5. The 9th lunar month - Chrysanthemum Festival - Double Ninth Festival

Every three years, Ba Vang Pagoda organizes Chrysanthemum Festival on the ninth day of the lunar ninth month - Double Ninth Festival. This is considered a great festival which conveys a cultural and traditional meaning, inclining people to the values of truth, goodness and beauty, based on the spirit of love and solidarity, gratitude and repayment.

The diversity of domestic and foreign species of chrysanthemums, together with cultural activities, folk rituals have created an artistic and spiritual space of the Festival, organised in 2013 and 2016.

Hopefully, all the above information will urge you to plan a trip to Ba Vang Pagoda in the near future.