{"id":88979,"date":"2019-05-17T16:14:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T23:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=88979"},"modified":"2019-05-17T16:14:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T23:14:53","slug":"vesak-the-foremost-festival-of-our-nation-may-18-2019-full-moon-poya-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/17\/vesak-the-foremost-festival-of-our-nation-may-18-2019-full-moon-poya-day\/","title":{"rendered":"VESAK : THE FOREMOST FESTIVAL OF OUR NATION May 18 2019 – Full Moon Poya Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr.Daya Hewapathirane<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

Vesak has fivefold significance for\nthe people of Sri Lanka.  It marks <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(1)<\/strong>        the birth, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(2)<\/strong>        the attainment of enlightenment, and <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(3)<\/strong>        the parinibbana or the final passing away of the Buddha, <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(4)<\/strong>        it signifies the beginning of the Buddhist New Year and <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(5)<\/strong>        the arrival in Sri Lanka, of Prince Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhala\nrace which is unique to our country. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, two major types of\nactivities take place in Sri Lanka during Vesak \u2013 spiritual and cultural. The\nformer largely confined to Buddhist temples in the form of prayers, rituals and\nmeditation practices, and the observation of \u2018sil\u2019 or the eightfold Buddhist\nethical principles by Buddhist devotees clad in white. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultural activities take place in\npublic places and homes of Buddhists. Customarily, during Vesak, Sri Lanka is\ntransformed into a fantastic festive world of light, sight and sound. It is\nVesak that takes Buddhist paintings and other works of art to the people in the\nstreet. Vesak thorana is the fundamental method by which this is done. \nVesak \u2018thoran\u2019 or pandols form a spectacular site during Vesak where Buddhist\nthemes are portrayed colourfully, along with narrative descriptions of what is\npresented in the thoran.  In actual fact, it is a temporary relocation of\nwhat is found inside Buddhist temples, on their walls, ceilings, and other\nsurfaces. It is the depiction of the colourful paintings of the life of the\nBuddha, Jataka tales and episodes from the history of our nation. Evoking\nserene joy in people and getting them to reflect on the virtues of the Buddha appear\nto be the primary motives of Buddhist cultural activities during Vesak.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is Vesak that provides\nopportunities for Buddhist artists to express their creativity, their spiritual\nemotions, the inspiration they have drawn from the Holy Triple Gems  –\nBuddha, Dhamma and Sangha. In fact, it is their festival of arts, bringing\ntogether artists, poets, lyricists, musicians, singers, dancers, playwrights,\nactors, actresses, craftsmen, electricians, photographers, film-makers and\nthose actively involved in or skilled in computer graphics and animation\npopularly used in some Buddhist cultural activities of contemporary\ntimes.   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is most opportune for all\ncitizens of Sri Lanka, especially all Buddhists to be fully aware of the\ndeceitful threats and challenges of various sorts brought about by extremist\nMuslims living among us to undermine the Buddha Dhamma and Buddhist culture\nwhich form the foundation of our nation.  As concerned citizens of this\ngreat country, it is the duty of all to confront these threats and challenges\nand help the preservation and promotion of the wholesome spiritual basis of\nthis nation. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr.Daya Hewapathirane<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr.Daya Hewapathirane Vesak has fivefold significance for the people of Sri Lanka.  It marks (1)        the birth, (2)        the attainment of enlightenment, and (3)        the parinibbana or the final passing away of the Buddha, (4)        it signifies the beginning of the Buddhist New Year and (5)        the arrival in Sri Lanka, of Prince Vijaya, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-daya-hewapathirane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}