Today(April 30th) is April 8th in lunar calendar, and we celebrate Sakyamuni Buddha’s birthday in this day!
It’s a national holiday here, and it’s called 부처님 오신 날(The Day when Buddha came to this world) or 석가탄신일(Sakyamuni’s Birthday).
I wish all of you guys get your own enlightenment, find your own salvation, while you live.
(Other countries celebrate it too, but date may vary, and in some countries it’s not a holiday.)
Buddhism entered my country, Korea, in 4th century CE, so Buddhism in Korea has a history of approximately 1,500 years.
Our Buddha Birthday practices are mainly lantern festivities, and when we go to temples on that day, we can eat delicious bibimbap (without meat, of course)!
For those of you guys who want to know what this food is, see Bibimbap - Wikipedia
However today is most quiet Buddha Birthday I’ve ever seen, because of COVID-19.
There are no lanterns on the streets, no festivities, and no ceremonies.
Actually those are all postponed to the end of May: for example, temples in my city decided to hold ceremonies in May 30th(April 8th in leap month). Lantern festivities will be hold some days before then.
But I won’t give up hope: Things will be back to normal. We have power to endure and overcome this pandemic crisis.
Let’s stay safe and improve our wisdom with magic.
I wish you all have a great day!