Buddha Purnima
The full moon of Vaishakha, on which the tradition places the Buddha's birth, awakening and parinirvana alike.
Where it is kept All India, particularly Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, Ladakh, Maharashtra and the north-east; and across Theravada Asia as Vesak.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running at sunrise.
Overview
One full moon carries three events. The Buddha is held to have been born at Lumbini, to have reached awakening under the bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, and to have entered parinirvana at Kushinagar — all on the full moon of Vaishakha, in different years. The coincidence is a claim of the tradition rather than a historical finding, and it is stated as such in the sources themselves.
The observance is quiet by the standards of the Indian festival calendar: the eight precepts taken for the day, the day spent at a vihara, the bodhi tree watered, and food given to monks and to the poor. At Bodh Gaya and Sarnath the day draws pilgrims from across Buddhist Asia.
Where it comes from
The Buddha's dates are debated; the older consensus of 563–483 BCE has largely given way to a shorter chronology placing the death nearer 400 BCE. The Vaishakha full moon association is consistent across the Pali sources and the northern tradition.
The name Vesak is the Sinhala form of Vaishakha. The 1950 World Fellowship of Buddhists conference in Colombo formalised it as the common observance of the Buddhist world, and the United Nations recognised the Day of Vesak in 1999.
Why it matters
For Indian Buddhists — and since 1956 that includes the large Navayana community following B. R. Ambedkar's conversion at Nagpur — it is the principal day of the year.
The day is also kept by many Hindus, in whose reckoning the Buddha is counted among the avataras of Vishnu. That identification is a Puranic one and is not accepted by Buddhists; both positions are long-standing and it is worth knowing which one is being expressed at a given observance.
How to celebrate
- Take the eight precepts for the day if you keep the observanceThe standard uposatha practice on a full-moon day.
- Give food, and give it to those who ask rather than selectivelyDana is the lay practice of the day.
- Water the bodhi tree at a viharaThe customary act at temples with a bodhi tree, from the Sri Lankan practice.
- Keep the day vegetarianGeneral across the traditions on this day, whatever the ordinary practice.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not take alcoholThe fifth precept, and taken seriously on an uposatha day even by those who do not otherwise keep it.
- Do not kill anything, including insects, on this dayThe first precept, applied strictly for the twenty-four hours.
- Do not conflate Vesak with a Hindu deity's birthdayThe Buddha's inclusion among Vishnu's avataras is a Puranic claim, not a Buddhist one.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- Mahaparinibbana Sutta, Digha Nikaya 16, for the account of the parinirvana.
- Lalitavistara and the Nidanakatha, for the birth narrative at Lumbini.
- World Fellowship of Buddhists, Colombo 1950, and UN General Assembly resolution 54/115 of 1999, for the modern common observance.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page