Magha Puja Day

Magha Puja Day celebration

Magha Puja Day is one of the most important Buddhist celebrations which falls on the full moon day of the third lunar month (about last week of February or early of March).

This day marks the great four events that took place during Lord Buddha's lifetime, namely;

1. 1250 Buddhist monks from different places came to pay homage to Lord Buddha at Veluvana Vihara (bamboo grove) in Rajgaha (present day Rajgir), the capital of Magadha State (present day Bihar), each of his own initiative and without prior notification or appointment.
2. all of them were the enlightened monks (or Arahantas)
3. all of them had been individually ordained by Lord Buddha himself (Ehi Bhikkhu Pabbajja Upasampada)
4. They assembled on the full moon day of the third lunar month.

On the evening of that day, Lord Buddha gave the assembly a discourse "Ovada Patimokkha" laying down the principles of His Teachings summarized into three acts, i.e. to do good, to abstain from bad action and to purify the mind.

"sabba papassa akaranam - kusalassa upasampada

sacitta pariyodapanam - etam buddhanasasanam."

This Magha Puja celebration takes place very vividly and with lot of veneration in most of the southeast Asian Buddhist countries, especially in Thailand. 

In Sri Lanka too, as usual all the Full Moon Days are public holidays and therefore people are free to go to the temple and observe eight / ten precepts. Magha Puja Day is called Navam Poya in Sri Lanka and there are special reasons to celebrate this day as follows:

Celebrates the following events in Buddhist history:

• Entrance into the order of two leading disciples of The Buddha (Sariputta and Maha Moggalana)
  
  
  The Buddha proclaims for the first time a code of fundamental ethical precepts for the monks. 
  
  
  The Buddha announces that within three months His Parinibbana (death) will take place.
  
  
  Navam Perahera in Gangarama temple, Colombo is a special event that takes place in the capital of Sri Lanka for years with the participation of decorated elephants, traditional dancers representing numerous regional cultural values. 

 Sources:

• http://www.thailandlife.com/thai-buddhist/magha-puja-day.html / retrieved on 2/6/2015
• http://www.mysrilanka.com/travel/lanka/festivals/POSON.HTM / retrieved on 2/6/2015
• https://us.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=iry&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_003&type=blfnt_f2&p=magha%20puja%20day / retrieved on 2/6/2015