Buddha’s Birthday Ceremony

April 8 is the birthday of the Buddha. This is called as “the flower festival”, people go to a temple and pour amacha(sweet tea) water on an image of Buddha.

Above picture shows a person who was pouring sweet tea over an image at a temple at Koto city in Tokyo on April 8, 2017.

The small black statuette at the center is Buddha of birth, the water like liquid is sweet tea made from hydrangea leaves.

Why people pour sweet tea over the statuette? According to the legend, honeydew felt down from the sky at Buddha’s birth. So we take after it with sweet tea. In this way people celebrate Buddha’s birthday and appreciate for His Divine protections.
I hope you will try this on next April here in Japan.

(by Shoichiro)

Please also see our post ?   Another Flower Festiva