Indian Buddhists community in Midlands- UK celebrated 2554th Buddha Jayanthi (Vesak) Celebrations in grand style at Birmingham Buddhist Maha Vihara under the patronage of Venerable Dr Witharandeniye Kassapa Nayaka Thero, head of the Vihara on 16th May (Sunday) from 10.30 am to 5.00 pm.
There have been over 300 devotees from different parts of Midlands participated this annual event through out the day.
The programme was full of religious sermons, speeches and many other activities and finally devotional songs (Bakthi Gee) were sung in Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati as well as Bengali languages.
There will be a separate Wesak Celebration for Sri Lankan, British, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and other Far Eastern and European Buddhists on 23rd May (Sunday) at Vihara premises.
Religious programme starts at 8.00am administering Eight Precepts (Atasil) and admonition (Anusasana).There will be a Wesak lantern competition and first 5 winners will be given valuable prizes.
Venerable Kassapa Nayaka Thero requests Buddhist families to encourage children to participate the celebration and Wesak lantern competition.
Author : Janaka Alahapperuma
Source : http://www.lankaweb.com
