Vesak, the celebration of Buddha's birth, passing and enlightment

As an overseas, international volunteer in Sri Lanka there is a good chance you find yourself in the midst of a buddhist celebration such as Vesak or a Perahera.

Wesak , the celebration of birth , enlighten and passing of Gautama Buddha, was celebrated in grand style right through out Colombo. Last year was a totally different story. I was here for Wesak last year and Colombo had some Wesak lanterns but no lantern competitions or Wesak thoran, i.e. huge displays depicting various stages of Buddha’s life.

But this year as the war in Sri Lanka was at the final laps Colombo and the rest of country seemed to put its barriers down and feels more peaceful.

We went to the famous Gangarama temple in Colombo and the there was a lantern completion, choirs sponsored by large organisation singing Wesak songs in the street and loads of free food, like biscuits and coffee and fried rice been given by wealthy businessman to anyone and everyone.

We went to the ice cream dansal as they are called and a biscuit and coffee dansel. It was my very first experience at a dansal and there were plenty to choose from, in some of them the queues were so long that it was amazing the length of time these people were willing to queue up for ice cream and fried rice and all those other goodies.

Colombo for a whole weekend was one big street party minus the alcohol. The best thing about this year’s Wesak was that there were people all races coming together to enjoy Wesak and soak in the atmosphere. 

There was still the police officers doing what they do best, and keeping a watchful eye on things but this year was their most relaxed Wesak celebration in a long while.

I was so surprised to see a army commander walking amid the crowd with just two guard officers whilst we are so used to seeing them whizzing pass in the VIP squad cars and jeeps.

So you see things changing, and for the better. We are starting to see more and more abandoned security check points in and around Colombo which is good sign that the government have taken control of the situation, finally. The pictures speak for themselves, so have a look…..

Written by Anne Fernando of the LEO Project Foundation.

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