Temples skip major events on Wesak Day to avoid crowds

 

Buddhist worshippers at the Fo Guang Shan Dong Zen temple in Jenjarom, Kuala Langat, during the Wesak Day celebration today. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Wesak Day is usually celebrated in a big way by Buddhists in the country but street processions with a sea of orange robes were not seen this year as temples tried to avoid massive crowds.

This was the scenario today despite devotees emerging from a two-year abstinence of avid festivity due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Bernama survey in several states showed that Buddhist families visited temples in the early hours of the morning to hold religious ceremonies and pay homage to Siddhartha Gautama, the religion’s founder.

They performed religious rituals by lighting candles and offering flowers to commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha.

The grounds of the Maha Vihara Buddhist Temple in Brickfields here was filled with devotees as early as 8am and moderate crowds began queuing on the grounds of the temple to carry out activities such as rice and flower offerings and lighting of candles as well as making donations to the temple.

Sirisena Perera, president of the Sasana Abhiwurdhi Wardana Society, said the Buddhist Maha Vihara Temple in Brickfields was not staging three major events on this year’s Wesak Day to control the size of crowds.

“We are not holding the usual blood donation campaign, no distribution of free food and drinks and no procession. Normally on Wesak Day, in the evening, there will be a chariot procession with about a 100,000-strong crowd accompanying it on foot,” Sirisena said when met at the temple today.

He said the temple was expected to receive only 50% of the usual 30,000 to 40,000 crowd that used to come before the pandemic. - FMT