Buddha Purnima · Vesak Festival The full moon of Vaishakha, on which the Buddha is held to have been born, to have reached enlightenment at Bodh Gaya and to have passed into nirvana, all three on the same tithi in different years.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Buddha Purnima · Vesak
- हिन्दी
- बुद्ध पूर्णिमा
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The full moon of Vaishakha, on which the Buddha is held to have been born, to have reached enlightenment at Bodh Gaya and to have passed into nirvana, all three on the same tithi in different years. Bodh Gaya and Sarnath are circumambulated, the Bodhi tree is watered and lamps and prayer flags are put up; Hindu almanacs keep the same day as the ninth avatar of Vishnu.
- Deity
- Buddha, Vishnu
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Vaishakha Purnima at sunrise; the pujas run from before dawn and the lamps are lit at dusk.
The fast
Buddhists keep the eight precepts for the day, with no solid food after midday in the stricter houses; Hindus who keep it fast until the moon rises.
Where the regions differ
Kept as Vesak across the Buddhist world on the same full moon, though Sri Lanka, Thailand and China each reckon the month a little differently and can fall a lunation apart.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.