Buddhism and Bodhi Day: enjoying the holiday season

Recently, I posted a blog entry for the online journal, In Culture Parent, about the challenges of celebrating the holidays as a Buddhist and parent, and I wanted to explore this notion further here. For many of us Buddhists the default holiday is Christmas, but this might be harder for people who grew up Buddhist to begin with, as opposed to those who converted later in life.

As Buddhism tends to have fewer holidays in general than other faiths, there’s not a lot to observe on the calendar, but Bodhi Day falls nicely in December and is a great way to celebrate the holidays with a uniquely Buddhist outlook above and beyond Christmas:

Bodhi Day

Bodhi Day, or the day the Buddha became enlightened, falls on December 8th because in the traditional texts the Buddha became awakened on the “8th day of the 12th month”. Back then, people used the Lunar Calendar which jumps around a lot, but in the modern calendar this is equivalent to December 8th.1

So lately, I got to thinking of a way to celebrate Bodhi Day and how to make it fun for my little girl. While writing the article for In Culture Parent, I came up with the idea of adapting Christmas traditions to recreate the story of the Buddha’s Awakening. First, take a small Buddha statue and place it under a small, decorated Christmas Tree, kind of like the one shown above. You can decorate with the kids of course. :) I was thinking a popcorn string might be a good idea, and since it’s a small tree I am using it won’t be terribly time-consuming. Once complete, this can be the Buddha’s “Bodhi Tree”.

Next, on the night of December 7th (Bodhi Day Eve?), leave some cookies next to the Buddha. This can recreate the village girl’s offering to the Buddha before he sat under the Bodhi Tree and resolved to meditate. My little one can help with the cookies and such. Since the Buddha’s Birthday has similar traditions surrounding the life of the baby Buddha (as seen in my visit to Kyoto, Japan in April 2010), it seemed only fitting to do something similar for Bodhi Day.

The following morning I thought it would be good to have a nice little wrapped gift waiting for her and we can celebrate with a nice breakfast. I already bought her a couple Disney “Princess” books she will enjoy, and I thought this was more appropriate than just another toy. So I’ll leave those for her wrapped and ready come December 8th morning. Sadly, I have to go see the eye doctor in the afternoon (shattered my glasses earlier this week, and can’t see a thing), but I want the morning to just be family time.

Buddhism as a religion doesn’t really require holidays much, because each day and each moment are a chance to reflect and to be aware of oneself, but holidays are nice for gathering loved ones together, and sharing in the Buddha’s message of peace, gratitude and wisdom. It doesn’t have to be really “heavy” into deep Buddhist teachings either, but instead something that can leave a positive experience for kids to carry on into adulthood.

Update: You can see the finished result here.

P.S. Past Bodhi Day posts for 2008 and 2009. Also, proof that Santa Claus is a “Buddhist” too.

P.P.S. I moved this post out to the next “slot” to make room for Wednesday’s post. It’s off-schedule, but time-sensitive too.

1 Two other holidays of note: Nirvana Day (Feb. 15th, Western calendar) and the Buddha’s Birthday (Aug. 8th, Western calendar).


Be the first to like this post.

3 Comments on “Buddhism and Bodhi Day: enjoying the holiday season”

  1. What a great idea to have an old fashioned German ‘O Tannenbaum’ as a Bodhi Tree. The lights may represent enlightenment.

  2. Shinyo says:

    Thanks for posting this Doug. I enjoy finding Buddhist teachings in traditional American holidays. I like to put a little statue of Hotei under my tree. He seems a lot like Santa Clause to me.

  3. Doug M says:

    Hi Shinnyo, I totally have to agree. Hotei and Santa are definitely alike. :-)


Leave a Reply

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo
Twitter picture

You are commenting using your
Twitter account. (Log Out)

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your
Facebook account. (Log Out)

Connecting to %s