For
Christians, today is Easter Sunday.
Many people celebrate by going to church, having family gatherings,
and eating together. But we also link the holiday with spring things
like bunnies and chicks and eggs. Decorating eggs and having Easter
egg hunts are two of my favorite Easter customs!
For
more on Easter, check out this and this other post.
For
Buddhists, today is Buddha Day.
April
8 is the traditional birthday of Gautama Buddha, the founder of the
religion, who was thought to have lived in India from 563 B.C.E. to
483 B.C.E. (Actually, scholars have some evidence that he may have
been born in May, rather than April, but since the date is uncertain,
why not stick with tradition?)
Whenever
it was, the Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha, the son of a king of
people who lived on the border of present-day Nepal and India. The
prince lived a very luxurious life, sheltered from disease and death,
poverty and misery. However, when he was a young adult, Siddhartha
set off to see more of the world and was amazed by the amount of
suffering he saw. He wandered and observed and thought deeply about
life and death and suffering. Eventually he began to teach that
suffering was caused by human craving, and that nirvana (an end to
suffering) can be achieved by right views, right speech, and right
action. The Buddha taught an eightfold path of “right” things—in
other words, how to best live life.
Buddhism
spread from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan,
and eventually worldwide. Today it is estimated that 350 million
people practice Buddhism.
Also
on this date:
No comments:
Post a Comment