Prabarana Purnima today

The Buddhists will celebrate their second largest religious festival Prabarana Purnima in the city as elsewhere across the country with due solemnity and traditional enthusiasm.

The festival is also known as Ashwini Purnima that marks conclusion of the three-month-long seclusion of the monks inside their monasteries for self-edification and atonement of their defilement.

The purnima follows a month-long preaching of sermons by the Buddhist monks for the welfare of every beings and the whole humankind through a month-long yellow robes offering ceremony that begins on the day after the purnima.

According to the legend, Buddha once clipped some strands of hair from his head and said that if he was qualified to attain supreme wisdom and enlightenment, the hairs would not fall down but go up instead, in the long run which they did. To mark this event, the Buddhists will release candle-lit air balloons made of coloured paper (fanush) and set free to flow towards the autumnal sky in the evening which is the chief attraction of the festival.

Marking the festival and on the occasion of month long Kathin Chibar Dan (Yellow Robe Offering Ceremony), President M Abdul Hamid greeted the Buddhists. The purnima will be celebrated in all monasteries, respective offices of the religious organizations and educational institutions through daylong programmes.

The programmes will herald with the hoisting of the national and religious flags atop all monasteries at dawn and chanting of the sacred verses from the sacred Tripitaka. Breaking of fasting of the monks, mass prayers, blood donation, Sangadana, discussions, panchashila, asthashila and pradip puja will be highlighted the programmes.

In the capital, the main religious congregations will be held at Dharmarajik Bouddha Bihar, Kamalapur , International Buddhist Monastery at Merul Badda, Kalachandpur Bouddha Bihar, Uttara Bouddha Bihar, Adibashi Bouddha Temple at Mirpur and Ashulia Bodhigyan Maithree Bhabona Kendra.