01What Buddha Purnima is
Buddha Purnima is the Purnima of Vaishakha, the full moon of late spring, and the most important day of the Buddhist year. It is kept by Buddhists across the world and widely in India as Buddha Jayanti; in Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia the same full moon is called Vesak. The Hindu calendar honours it as well: many Puranic lists count the Buddha among the ten avatars of Vishnu, and the Vaishakha Purnima has long been a day for river bathing and charity in its own right, falling as it does in the heat before the rains.
02The story told of it
The tradition tells that Siddhartha Gautama was born on this full moon in the grove of Lumbini, the son of the Shakya ruler of Kapilavastu. It tells that, years later, after leaving the palace and searching for six years, he sat beneath a peepal tree at Bodh Gaya resolved not to rise until he understood, and that on the full moon of Vaishakha he reached awakening and became the Buddha. That tree is honoured to this day as the Bodhi tree. It is the day Buddhist tradition marks the Buddha's birth, awakening and final nirvana.
03How it is kept
Buddhists keep the day at viharas and stupas: offerings of flowers, lamps and incense, taking the precepts, chanting, meditation and listening to the teaching. Many keep the eight precepts for the day, eat simple vegetarian food, and give to monks and to those in need, and in some places caged birds are set free as an act of kindness. Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Lumbini draw pilgrims from every Buddhist country. In Hindu homes the Vaishakha Purnima is kept with a river bath, the Satyanarayana katha and gifts of water, fans and food in the summer heat.
04How the day is chosen
It is kept on the day its tithi is current at sunrise in your city.
05Buddha Purnima in other years
