A performance at a ceremony marking the Buddhist Vu Lan Festival in Prague on September 2 (Photo: VOV)
Prague (VNA) - Vietnamese expatriates in the Czech Republic held a grand ceremony to mark the Buddhist Vu Lan Festival in Prague on September 2.
Along hundreds Vietnamese expatriates in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany, the event was attended by dignitaries from the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) Central Committee, associations of Vietnamese Buddhist followers in Europe and the Czech Republic, representatives from the Vietnam Embassy, leaders of the union of Vietnamese in Europe and association of Vietnamese in the Czech Republic.
Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Most Venerable Thich Thien Bao from the VBS Central Committee highlighted the significance of the Vu Lan festival as an occasion to pay tribute to parents
He said Vietnamese communities abroad should educate their younger generations to preserve the tradition and Vietnamese cultural identities.
The Vu Lan festival falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar. On this month’s full moon, wandering souls are believed to return to their former homes.
The festival is based on the legend that once when mediating, a Buddha’s disciple named Muc Kieu Lien saw his mother suffering hell’s tortures. Following Buddha’s advice, on the seventh full moon of the year, Lien gathered monks and devotees to pray for his mother.
Therefore, the festival is also an occasion for children to express their gratitude towards their parents (especially mothers) and help ancestors’ souls find their way back to the earth.-VNA
