• Vesak Day is an important festival among the various Buddhist festivals, and is also a day of celebration for Buddhists all over the world. Vesak Day mainly commemorates the birth, enlightenment and nirvana of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism.
• There is a saying that the word Vesak is derived from the Pali word, Vesakha (the name of a month in the lunar calendar, typically between April and June of the solar calendar).
• In 1955, the Singapore government declared Vesak Day a public holiday. Vesak Day falls on the first full moon of the fourth month on the lunar calendar (around May of the solar calendar).

Dr. Mohamad Maliki bin Osman, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Defence & Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mayor, South East District, attended the event yesterday with his wife and his children. He said, “Ramadan and Vesak Day falls on the same day this year. I am glad to see youths of different races and religions celebrating Vesak Day while deepening their understanding of Ramadan.” (Lianhe Zaobao, 30/5/2018)

佛诞节 (Hong Kong), 佛陀诞辰纪念日 (Taiwan)

• Some traditional activities held on Vesak Day include the “Bathing the Buddha” ritual and the “Three-Step, One-Bow” rituals. For “Bathing the Buddha”, devotees scoop clean water from a basin and sprinkle it over a statue of Buddha. This represents the washing away of bad habits such as greed, pride, complacency, anger, jealousy and selfishness. In the “Three-Step, One-Bow” ritual, devotees prostrate themselves before Buddha with every three steps they take, symbolizing their repentance as well as their highest form of reverence to Buddha.