Ho Chi Minh City residents put on red roses to celebrate Ullambana
Monday, August 11, 2014, 14:09 GMT+7
Tens of thousands of Buddhists and non-Buddhist people following Buddhism practices on Sunday packed many pagodas and temples in Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate Ullambana, which is equivalent to Mother’s Day in western culture.
Ullambana celebrations are held in the Buddhist communities worldwide, but there is one special characteristic in Vietnamese tradition – people wear either a red or white rose when visiting a pagoda or temple.
Wearing a red rose, like wearing a red carnation on Mother’s Day, means that the mothers of the wearers are still alive, while a white rose, like a white carnation, implies that the mothers have passed away.
The tradition of wearing roses is depicted in a poem of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Hanh wrote the poem in 1962 after meeting with some Japanese friends when visiting Tokyo with his teacher, Thien An.
He was putting on a white carnation as his teacher told those friends that Hanh’s mother was dead.
The poem was then turned into a song by Pham The My and became more and more popular until today.
The song, mostly describing the bliss of having a mother and how miserable it is when a person loses her, begins with “a red rose for you, a red rose for all those whose mothers are still alive…” and end with “one evening after coming home, just look at your mother for a while and then tell her – mom, do you know that I love you so much? ... And for those who still wear red roses on their clothes, please enjoy that.”
There are around seven million Buddhists in Vietnam while statistics on the number of non-Buddhists performing Buddhist practices, which is believed to be large, are not available.
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Traditionally, Ullambana is the day for helping those beings who are suffering so that they can obtain liberation. It is mentioned in a Buddhist legend of the Venerable Mahamaudgalyayana, one of the great disciples of the Buddha, who wanted to save his mother who had fallen into hell. Although the Venerable Maudgalyayana had great spiritual powers, he could not save his mother. The Buddha explained that his mother was suffering in hell because of her deep offenses and so the Venerable Maudgalyayana had to rely on the united strength of the Buddha in many other worlds to save his mother. The Venerable Mahamaudgalyayana did as the Buddha had instructed, and then his mother was reborn in heaven. |
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