Festivals and rituals

Mark­ing that which we hold dear

Buddhist Fest­ivals

We cel­eb­rate four prin­cipal Buddhist fest­ivals through the year, ded­ic­ated to the Buddha, the Dharma (the Buddha’s teach­ing), the Sangha (the spir­itual com­munity) and Par­inir­vana (the death of the Buddha).

Tra­di­tion­ally Buddhists would gather together for teach­ings, to med­it­ate and to chant on full moon days. We still do this today, cre­at­ing a strong sense of col­lect­ive prac­tice.
Sangha Day Festival

Par­inir­vana Day: in Feb­ru­ary, com­mem­or­at­ing the Buddha’s final passing away, this offers an oppor­tun­ity for us to con­sider death and imper­man­ence in our own lives.

Buddha Day: in May, some­times known as Wesak. Our most import­ant fest­ival, when we cel­eb­rate the Buddha gain­ing Enlightenment.

Dharma Day: in July. It’s one thing to become awakened one­self, but quite another to com­mu­nic­ate to oth­ers how to achieve this. The Buddha did it!

Sangha Day
: in Novem­ber, cel­eb­rat­ing the spir­itual com­munity, all those who prac­tice the Dharma

Next: Pad­masambhava Day Festival

Full Moon Pujas

On the months when we have no fest­ival day, we gather for puja (ritual).

If you have com­pleted an intro­duct­ory Buddhism course you are very wel­come to attend and just observe or join in.

Next: Full Moon Puja to Prajnaparamita

Life Rituals

We con­duct the fol­low­ing Buddhist rituals and ceremonies:

  • Bless­ings fol­low­ing mar­riages and civil part­ner­ship ceremonies
  • Funeral or crem­at­orium service
  • Baby-naming ceremonies

To dis­cuss what is involved and to find out the costs, please con­tact Andrew on andrew@manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk or 0161 834 9232

Year-long Ritual

Two years ago we led a year long ritual where we did rituals to con­nect the Five Dhy­ani Buddhas with the sea­sons of the year. We went out at the tra­di­tional time of day and com­pass dir­ec­tion.
Rice mandala for start of year-long ritual
Ratnasambhava Summer Solstice Ritual
Akshobya Dawn Ritual

Book­mark, share or print this:
  • del.icio.us
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Reddit
  • E-mail this!
  • Print this!
  • PrintFriendly.com
Login