Buddhist festivals: Nirvana Day

That’s a great sand castle, Arthit! But shouldn’t you be packing up and heading home? It’s time to get ready for the special holiday tomorrow… Nirvana Day! Arthit and his family are Buddhists and Nirvana Day is a time to remember a very important moment in the life of the Buddha… Here is the Buddha sitting under a bodhi tree around two thousand five hundred years ago – except he isn’t known as the Buddha yet. His name is Siddhartha Gautama.

Siddhartha seeks an answer to the great problem of human suffering. Why do we suffer? How do we escape unhappiness? And how do we break free from the endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth? In his life, Siddhartha has experienced the extremes of pleasure and pain, but neither have helped him gain answers.

So, he has decided to sit here, meditating, until the answer comes to him. Nothing will make him move. An evil demon, Mara, tries to interrupt Siddhartha with temptation, violence, and mockery. But Siddhartha does not give in. He continues to meditate, still and calm.

In the morning, as the sun rises, he has a breakthrough. Life can never satisfy us, he realises, because we always want more. The only way to achieve peace and to escape the endless cycle of rebirth, is to stop wanting. Siddhartha has awoken. He is enlightened.

He has become the Buddha, meaning The Enlightened One. The Buddha recognises that all pain and all joy – everything in life in fact – is fleeting, impermanent. He is free from desire and therefore from suffering. The Buddha has entered the state of Nirvana. This means that, when the Buddha dies, he will no longer be reborn.

Instead, he will enter Parinirvana and be free from suffering forever. Many Buddhists, like Arthit and his family, remember the Buddha’s enlightenment journey by celebrating Nirvana Day, sometimes known as Parinirvana Day. Arthit celebrates on February 15th; in some parts of the world, the day is marked on February 8th instead. Arthit spends part of Nirvana day meditating, just as the Buddha did. Later, he visits his local temple.

At the temple, Arthit and his family make an offering of flowers and fruit to a statue of the Buddha. One day, Arthit hopes to join other Buddhists on a special Nirvana Day journey, a pilgrimage. The pilgrimage will take him to the city in India where the Buddha is thought to have died: the city of Kushinagar. In Kushinagar, he will visit shrines dedicated to the Buddha and make offerings there. Meanwhile, back at the temple, Arthit spends time reading from Buddhist holy books.

This helps him learn more about the Buddha’s teachings. Today, he focuses on a book that describes the last days of the Buddha’s life: the Nirvana Sutra. When they get home from the temple, Arthit and his family share a meal with loved ones. While they talk and eat, they think about achieving Nirvana for themselves. This is also a time to remember friends and family who have died.

Buddhists recognise, just as the Buddha did, that nothing in life is permanent – not even life itself. People and things are precious but nothing is here forever – just like Arthit’s sand castle. We should enjoy them while we can! Happy Nirvana day, Arthit!