Buddhist New Year

What do we do every year, be we Jodo Shinshu Buddhists,-- the local Jodo Shinshu group informs us that this is the year 2487 according to the Buddhist Calendar and the year of Horse -- Mahayana or any other ...yana Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Muslims or Hindus? We "reflect upon and correct our past mistakes and look forward to a better life in the new year. Reflection, hope and resolution are some of the basic elements of an active religious life." That quote is lifted from http://shinmission_sg.tripod.com/honganm... Religious Observances in Jodo Shinshu, but it is a universal statement about the meaning of New Year's for any of us who are looking to experience more than loud noise and stumbling drunks this holiday. Any religious observation around this time will include reflection, formulation of resolutions, and ceremonies to invoke higher energies to strengthen our resolves and to carry the work into higher spheres.

So in general terms, Buddhist New Year is more like any other New Year than it is different. However, within Buddhism, because this religion covers so many countries and exists amid so many host cultural traditions, there is an amazing diversity in the timing of the New Year and in the observances. The Buddhist Calendar is calculated differently in various parts of the world. Visit http://www.dailyglobe.com/buddha.html The Daily Globe Buddhist Calendar for a thorough and lucid explanation. A sample:

The most common type of Buddhist calendar is lunar and begins roughly in December or January of the Gregorian calendar. Each month is approximately 29 or 30 days, depending upon the length of the each moon. In essence the Buddhist calendar is similar to the Hindu calendar but uses a different moon to begin the New Year. Every few years an extra intercalary or leap day is added after the 7th Month. Occassionally, an extra month is added there as well. Because of this system, it is often quite difficult to predict when Buddhist holidays will be celebrated from year to year. Most areas simply use numbers for the months, an exception being Sri Lanka which has its own names.

Theraveda Buddhists begin the New Year on a solar basis calculated upon the zodiac from the point at which the sun enters Aries, which is often between April 13-18. Some Buddhists use the Gregorian calendar. Mayahana Buddhists celebrate Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and death according to the Gregorian calendar.

The website includes a chart of Buddhist holidays and their dates this year.

Confusing? We're just getting started. Here are a few other tidbits about the timing of the new year in different parts of the Buddhist world.

One website, http://www.khonkaen.com/english/festival... informs us that Thailand celebrates new years on Jan. 1. But at http://critters.www4.50megs.com/holiday/... Origins of New Years Festival, we are told:

Pre-Buddhist indigenous and Hindu influences are prominent in Southeast Asian festivals. In Thailand, Trut, or New Year (March/April), is of a mixed character. Buddhist monks exorcise ghosts from the vicinity and are presented with gifts. Oblations are made to various gods of Hindu origin. As people meet, water is playfully thrown by one on the other. Gambling, usually frowned upon, is permitted for the three-day festival.

As for India, the variation in timing and observance is even greater:

Most Eastern New Year festivals retain a distinctly religious character. In Dravidian southern India, the Tamil New Year is celebrated at winter solstice with the three-day Pongal festival, marked by religious pilgrimages and the ritual boiling of new rice. In Bangladesh the New Year is marked by the worship of the Ganges.

Evidently, a Buddhist living in these regions would have several choices of celebrations, and would possibly celebrate both their own religious holidays and the regional cultural holidays, even as Jews celebrate Christmas in the USA.

Chinese New Year is celebrated officially for a month beginning in late January or early February. It is preceded by an expulsion of demons and by theatrical performances. Offerings are made to gods of hearth and wealth and to ancestors. Tibetans observe the New Year in February with feasting, visiting, and a relaxation of monastic discipline.

http://camden-www.rutgers.edu/~wood/wors... Worshipping and celebrating with Southeast Asians gives information about some Buddhist traditions currently followed in the USA:

The most visible Southeast Asian celebrations in the Philadelphia area focus on the New Year. The Vietnamese follow the Chinese in celebrating the New Year on the second new moon after the winter solstice, which generally occurs in late January or early February. Several of the local Vietnamese restaurants have special New Year's dinners; even some of the Atlantic City casinos have Vietnamese New Year's events (aimed at a Vietnamese clientele; the ads are only in Vietnamese). Laotians and Cambodians use a Buddhist calendar that generally places New Year's in April. The Hmong generally celebrate New Year's in late December. The Balinese have a 210 day year, with New Year's occuring every thirty weeks, so New Year's occurs at a different time each year--and it is possible for two Balinese new years to occur within one of our calendar years!

If you really want to nail down all these calendars, visit http://www.ecben.net/calendar.shtml When do you want to go today?This award-winning site gives all the major religions and calendars and tons more, most in handy chart form.

For those who particularly love this holiday (referred to as "revelers" in the media), why not endure the security checks, hop a few jetliners and chase the holiday across the meridians? Maybe that will be my resolution next year, instead of the tired old "clean up my diet" which never seems to happen.