Today (Makha Bucha Day) marks as the Buddhist's Valentines Day. It was the day where 1,250 monks gathered together to visit the Lord Buddha and, on that day, the Lord Buddha preached all of his ordained monks, oh-waa-tá-bpaa-dtì-môhk, or the principle teaching.
Althought it was more than 2,000 years ago that all of the monks came to meet for just the same purpose, i.e. to pay respect to the Lord Buddha, today, a lot of Thai people gather together to pay respect to the Lord Buddha. I can see that the number of people gathering to do merit making, to walk 3 round with holy sticks, a candle and flowers around the main pagoda, and to pray has increased dramatically.
With this scenario in mind, I still doubt if the purpose of gathering is to pay respect to the Lord Buddha or just to find a way to get out stress in today's society. But, whatever the case it is, I am still impressed to see more people visiting temples.
Anyway, did you go anywhere during Makha Bucha Day? Did you go to the temple as most Thai people do?
