Ullambana Festival at Quoc Thoi pagoda – Ben Tre province.

Yellow leaves fall in the autumn of July, it is when humankind welcomes the Ullambana festival, being dazed with remembering the gratitude of giving birth and bringing up from parents, made me sobbed with the tears.\r\n\r\nIt is just the scene “dead leaves left off their branches” that cause a feeling of being dazed and affected. Furthermore, the season of falling dry leaves is the season of children’s feeling toward their fathers and mothers, fretted with obsessive memories of great services compared with sky and sea of parents who have sacrificed all their children.

Accompanied with these feelings, on the instruction from\r\nSenior Ven.Thich Chan Tinh, the monks and Buddhists of Hoang Phap pagoda came\r\nto Quoc Thoi pagoda of the Abbot Thich Tam Hung, Tan Hoa hamlet, Long Thoi\r\ncommune, Cho Lach district, Ben Tre province in the morning of August 3rd 2014\r\n(on August 8th,Lunar Horse year) in order to support the work for Ullambana\r\ncelebration.

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At 9:30 am, three series of prajna bells and drums\r\nrespectfully welcomed the Venerables to the preaching hall to witness the\r\nceremony. Opening the ceremony was the ritual of making offers to the Buddha by\r\nBuddhist families.  The program continued with the ritual of pinning a red\r\nrose for the Buddhists. If having living parents please feel delighted and\r\nproud because they have had a happy world and respectfully pin a red rose on\r\nthe chest. Red is as the color of love as blood in the heart, which is\r\nconsidered the parents’ sacrifice to all in their lifetime for him. That red\r\ncolor reminds that the origin and the great gratitude must be remembered in\r\norder to take care of and compensate their parents’ debts when possible.\r\nHowever, being unhappy with parents’ death; please quietly pin a sadly pure/quite white\r\nrose on his chest, which is considered the life of mother in hard\r\nwork. In addition, all of solemn and highly things shopuld be\r\nkept inmind to be carved of images of the parents\r\nin the heart.

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 The atmosphere of the ceremony was even more solemn\r\nwhen Most Venerable Thich Giac Huong had some teachings. He delightfully\r\nexplained Buddists firstly remember the word “piety” because pious\r\nmind is Buddha’s mind; pious conduct is Buddha’s conduct; nobody can grow up\r\nwithout their parents. Each of us should practice the deep lesson about the sacred\r\npiety. Do not  regret imperfect piety until waiting to let awhite\r\nflower on his chest.   

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 The ceremony ended with a ritual of reciting Ullambana sutra in\r\nthe delight of all.

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A dharma gift including a VCD of ‘Great Ceremony of\r\nUllambana in 2013” was handed to them before going home.

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Some images are as below:

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