Vesak Day Facts for Kids

Vesak
Festival of Buddha's Birth, Enlightening and Final Passing

Our fascinating Vesak Day Facts for Kids will tell you about the important festival in the Buddhist religious calendar which will be celebrated on 23 May 2024.

vesak day facts by kids world travel guide

What is Vesak Day?

Hiranga Bandara Suraweera, one of our competition winners explains what Vesak Day is: "This is the most important event of the year for Buddhists, not only in Sri Lanka, but around the whole world.

Vesak day typically falls in the month of May and it is a full moon day. The festival signifies the birth, enlightenment and final passing of Lord Buddha.

In Sri Lanka, the Buddhist temples hold special programmes for pious Buddhists to observe the eight precepts. In the evening, various lanterns, pandols and lamps are lit as an offering of light to signify the three most important milestones in Lord Buddha’s life."

Pandols are huge displays of Lord Buddha's life! As you can see this one here:

Vesak Day Pandol

10 Vesak Day Facts

1. Vesak is the most important religious festival celebrated by followers of Buddhism. This festival is also referred to as Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti or simply Buddha Day.

2. The celebration commemorates the birthday and enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama who is commonly known as Buddha.

The tallest statue of Lord Buddha in Sri Lanka

The statue of Lord Buddha at Kande Vihara temple in southwestern Sri Lanka is the tallest in the country and measures 48.8 m/ 160 ft in height.

3. This celebration takes place on the day of the first full moon in May of the relevant calendar.

Buddha Day is a spring festival celebrated by Buddhists and some Hindus in several Asian countries. The celebrations can take place on different days depending on the country's traditions.

In Sri Lanka and India, the celebrations this year take place on 23 May while in Thailand and Cambodia Buddhists already will celebrate a day earlier, on 22 May 2024.

4. The name Vesak originates from the ancient Indian Sanskrit language. 'Vaisakha' refers to the month Buddha was born.

Vesak Day Lanterns - image by Hiranga Bandara Suraweera

5. It is tradition to decorate homes for Vesak Day. Children fold paper lanterns or draw lotus flowers in preparation for this day.

Click to download the Lotusflower as pdf for colouring

6. Homes and buildings are also decorated with flowers, and little Baby Buddha statues are placed on altars.

Often there are processions through the streets of the villages or towns as you can see below. Often candlelight processions are held as well.

Vesak Day procession - image by Alisyam13

Vesak Day procession at Borobudur in Indonesia - image by Alisyam13

7. Families visit the local temple on Vesak Day for prayers and they bring along offerings such as food, flowers or incense. The Buddhist flag is hoisted in the temples and the community listens to Buddha's teachings and hymns are sung.

Vesak Day celebrations at Gangarama temple

8. Burning joss sticks and incense as well as participating in charitable events are among the main customs during this festival.

9. No meat is being served on Vesak Day. Buddhists refrain from killing living animals, thus the dishes served for the celebration all are vegetarian and include rice and vegetable curries.

Typical vegetarian dishes in Sri Lanka

10. In Sri Lanka and Burma it is tradition to cook rice in milk to remind people that this special last meal of Buddha before the long fast brought him to enlightenment.

The very popular dosa and egg hopers are also served, these are also sold as street food throughout the year in Sri Lanka.

How do families celebrate Vesak Day?

Many families also prepare special dosa for this festival as Hiranga writes: "Everyone knows Dosa – but probably not the ones which are prepared in the shape of a cone. It takes a huge amount of skill as well as culinary expertise to craft the dosa in this particular shape. The dosa batter has to be of a certain texture, and the heating process should not overcook the batter to the extent that it becomes too crispy and fragile."

Traditional Rocket Dosa - image by Hiranga Bandara Suraweera

Another competition winner from 2018 shares with us her family traditions on Vesak Day. Nuthara Karunarathna also from Sri Lanka tells us how she celebrates the holiday with her family and what makes this day so special.

Vesak Celebrations in Colombo - image by anjanausjp

Vesak celebrations are really huge in Sri Lanka, but take place outside Sri Lanka also in India, in Singapore, in Malaysia and in Indonesia as well as in may places where Buddhists gather to celebrate this very special day.

Waisak Lantern Festival
in Indonesia

The Buddhists in Indonesia refer to the special celebrations as "Waisak". Indonesia houses the largest Buddhist temple in the world!

The Buddhist temple in Borobudur/ Indonesia is the largest Buddhist temple in the world.

The main Waisak celebrations are held this year on 23 May 2024.

The annual lantern procession in Borobudur with over 1,000 lanterns attracts people from around the world.

There a three day event takes place with a traditional parade from Mendut temple to Borobudur temple before the lantern procession.

waisak borobudur - Ardiyanto_Nugroho/shutterstock.com

Waisak Lantern Procession in Borobodur - image by Ardiyanto Nugroho

Buddhist monks in Indonesia follow the ancient traditions such bottling holy water and transporting a holy flame at Borobudur. Above you see the monks with the "Light of Peace" during the lantern festival.

Do you want to learn more about Sri Lanka?

Check out our fun country facts with information about the country's geo superlatives, people and culture, animals and economy and more interesting Sri Lankan food and dishes... Enjoy!

Click for more Sri Lanka Country Facts for Kids

We hope you have enjoyed our Vesak Day Facts for Kids and wish all our friends who celebrate a wonderful day:

"May the holidays be blessed with hope, happiness, compassion and peace! Make the light of Buddha's wisdom shine on you! Happy Vesak Day!"

from all of us at Kids-World-Travel-Guide.com

Vesak Day Facts for Kids | Resources

Tourism Sri Lanka. "Vesak Festival." SriLankaTourism. Last accessed 3 May 2024
TimeOutEditors. "Make a Vesak Lantern in six easy steps." TimeOut. Last accessed 3 May 2024
Singapore Tourism Board. "Vesak Day 2023." VisitSingapore. Last accessed 3 May 2024

Image Credits on Vesak Day Facts: Vesak Day images by Shutterstock.com and Canva.com; Vesak Day Pandol image by Sri Lanka Army from Government Official News 30 May 2018; Dosa by Hiranga Bandara Suraweera, Monks by Ardiyanto Nugroho/ shutterstock.com; Vesak Celebrations in Colombo by anjanausjp/ shutterstock.com; Borobudur Procession by Alisyam13/ shutterstock.com

Huge Thanks for this lovely article and inspiration shall go to Hiranga Bandara Suraweera from Trinity College in Kandy/ Sri Lanka!

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