{"id":2767,"date":"2023-05-05T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/?p=2767"},"modified":"2023-04-27T15:38:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:38:26","slug":"wesak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/2023\/05\/05\/wesak\/","title":{"rendered":"Wesak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Wesak, or Vesak, is the most important celebration in Buddhism. It commemorates Buddha\u2019s birthday, this year on the 5<sup>th<\/sup> of May. It is the Day of the Full Moon, as the month of May usually has only one full moon. However, if there are two full moons in May, some countries (including Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Malaysia) will celebrate on the first full moon, whereas others (Thailand, Singapore) will celebrate on the second. The day was recognised international by the UN General Assembly in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"827\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/Vesak_Day_2555-1024x827.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/Vesak_Day_2555-1024x827.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/Vesak_Day_2555-300x242.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/Vesak_Day_2555-768x620.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/Vesak_Day_2555-1536x1241.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/Vesak_Day_2555.jpg 2018w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Wesak is the commemoration of the day of Buddha\u2019s birth, as well as the day he achieved enlightenment. The teachings of Buddha have been inspiring people for over 2500 years. Buddhists believe that the human life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labour, and good behaviour are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana. Wesak is a day where Buddhists can celebrate the message of compassion and devotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/360_F_454685372_hiCNWEP0P0XaPsumxVM7ANMGBCQ5R4aq.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2769\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/360_F_454685372_hiCNWEP0P0XaPsumxVM7ANMGBCQ5R4aq.jpg 360w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/360_F_454685372_hiCNWEP0P0XaPsumxVM7ANMGBCQ5R4aq-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/360_F_454685372_hiCNWEP0P0XaPsumxVM7ANMGBCQ5R4aq-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/360_F_454685372_hiCNWEP0P0XaPsumxVM7ANMGBCQ5R4aq-250x250.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 85vw, 360px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On Wesak, devout Buddhists and followers will all go to their various temples before dawn for the ceremonial and honourable hoisting of the Buddhist flag and the singing of hymns the praise the holy triple gem: The Buddha: The Dharma (his teachings) ad The Sangha (his disciples). Devotees may bring offerings of flowers, candles, and joss-sticks to lay at the feet of their teachers. Some Buddhists may also wear simple white clothing and spend the whole day in temples with renewed determination to observe the eight precepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/buddhism.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/buddhism.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/70\/2023\/04\/buddhism-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wesak, or Vesak, is the most important celebration in Buddhism. It commemorates Buddha\u2019s birthday, this year on the 5th of May. It is the Day of the Full Moon, as the month of May usually has only one full moon. However, if there are two full moons in May, some countries (including Sri Lanka, Cambodia &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/2023\/05\/05\/wesak\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Wesak&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":572,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annual-celebration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/572"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2771,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767\/revisions\/2771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/culturalcalendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}