4th May 2008 Southbank, Brisbane
Knew about this festival from Karen and heard that there will be fireworks, so Khai Chin, Wei Jien, both Alice and me happily went to the festival and have a look.
Why are we so happy? or at least why am I so happy about the festival??
Mostly because it would be the 1st time i celebrate Buddhist Festival in a western country, it is a new experience. This reminds me of the Wesak Day, those days in Intec, days in Buddhist Group, time spent to be a volunteer during Wesak Day....
Well, that's not the point, if i want to say how i miss my life in Intec, erm...not really Intec, but friends in Intec, it would take a whole post for that. So, continue with the Buddha Festival.
Buddha Festival is to celebrate the birth of Buddha as Siddhartha on the 8th day of the 4th Lunar month. The aim of this festival is to promote peace and harmony as well as bringing the temple to people, making the religion more ???. The 1st festival in Southbank was back in 1997 and throughout these years, its popularity increases.
There are a few ceremonies and activities to be done on that day. One of the most significant ceremonies is the 'Bathing Buddha' ritual which main purpose is to improve harmony and inner balance. The procedure will be:
1. Kneel on the cushion.
2. Fill the ladle with water and pour over small Buddha statue for 3 times.
3. For each pouring, read:
- 1st wash: "May I eliminate evil thoughts"
- 2nd wash: "May I cultivate good deeds"
- 3rd wash: "May I help save all living beings"
Well, since we all need to sleep, ok, it's me that need to sleep, so we departed during afternoon. Of course i'm not that big influence la, we went there in the afternoon mainly because we skipped the multi-faith forum.
Anyway, so we took citycat, ya, as in the picture, from Guyatt Park to Southbank Quay
toilet of the Citycat
what am i looking at?c the pictures below n u will know
Finally, when we reached Southbank, this was what we saw:
Bathing Buddha Ceremony:
Guess what? I even saw Shao Lin Kung Fu!!The most surprising part to me is that it is presented not only by Chinese, but also Caucasian leh!!! Ok, i admit I'm 三巴, but i'm so excited when i see them presenting Shao Lin Kung Fu, with the background music is 男而当自强 and 霍元甲. There are even kids!!
So let's the pictures tell you la!
This is the process of 心口碎大石...There was a multi-faith light offering ceremony too, I nearly missed it as I was too engrossed with the Shao Lin Kung Fu. There were representatives from several religions (I can't remember their names and who actually they are...sorry~~) including representatives from Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. They gave their prayers regarding the birth of Buddha. The environment is quiet and solemn...
After the Light Offering Ceremony, we walked around and saw many stalls that sold food and souvenirs...
I heard one of the stall keepers said that they are dealers and normally won't set a stall like that, this time is only for the purpose of Buddha Festival, and all the profit gained will be donated. How kind they are~ feel touched and become 'paiseh' to bargain with them...
professional photographer, Alice,with her professional camera.. =P
Honestly, the most important factor that attracts me there is the fireworks display! I really love to see fireworks, i recorded a video clip for that too, but as usual, I can't upload to my blog...Maybe I'm really noob in IT stuffs...haha!
Since i can't upload to my blog, i asked the very kind and nice Mr Kok to help me and he uploaded the videos to youtube. So thanks to him, the videos of fireworks are up on my blog now! haha! The fireworks really nice lo!!
Anyway, after the fireworks, we then went back and that's it for the festival!
and so to my update...haha!
* big thanks to Mr Kok for helping me. As a token of appreciation, i won't tease u in any comment u leave me for this post..haha, this post only.. *clapz clapz*
~jj~
17 comments:
u dont wait till exam finish only update this almost-a-month-ago-festival? haha...
but at least better than me lar, i din even bother updating my blog...
so, let u tease back lar....lol
aiya, wrong timing 2 help u tiam, recently busy larr, not so free 2 tease u so much...haha
算你你赚到啦！
teach u once then next time seng mok dik lor, dont copy the youtube address, copy the embed thing 2 ur blog....haha
gd nite lar...
ya, i know liao! thank you sifu!
*btw, jz to inform, i uploaded the kung fu clip by myself...hehe
wah, u looks prettier liao wo! i know u like fireworks la, hope u enjoy it!
omg... how long is the fireworks? 10 MIN>>????? Damn nice man~ Hahaha...
The "Waaaaaaaa" voice... urs? haha.
yea.. u look more prettier liao =P
so nice eh tis event.. my small small palmy don even has a single temple.. sigh.. but got xtra more vegetarian food in dining hall on wesak day la.. but i seriously think itz coincidence oni.. lol.. fireworks!! last saw fireworks since tat putrajaya thingy lo.. not even new yr eve.. sigh.. u so lucky la!!
but i fell in love wif nz skies d.. every night oso lotsa lotsa stars, sumore saw colourful blinking star.. haha.. nice post anyway, i won b so rajin 2 upload so many fotoz.. lol.. keep it up!!
to cl: thanks! i enjoy a lot.
to vincent: ya, actually it is more than 10 minutes...n thanks wo! hehe.
to put: haha, i realised that brisbane actually very rich, they always have fireworks for events and the riverside of southbank is the usual spot. i heard that there will be a huge event n there will be very very nice fireworks on that night...haha, i'm sure going liao!!
should be around august gua...
me here got temple, and i went. but so weird..no buddha bathing, got joss sticks, ppl speak Thai, i duno needa bring rice for offering to monk. so i stayed there for less than 10 minutes even though i took more than 30minutes to go there...
anyway, i saw buddha! a small one though... *happy*
=.='"
wasei! 好隆重！！
actually hor, the festival is not in temple de lo! it is in Suncorp Piazza, many functions used to hold there de...
v dun need to bring rice as offering, but v did have a light offering ceremony, the organizer provides us candles also...
n hor, actually really quite 隆重 wo!
they even have many small Buddha statues for the Budhha Bathing ceremony leh! i din even c such thing in Malaysia wo! or i'm too lazy to go??!! hehe...
wuwaaa, so complicated 1.. never ever go 2 any event like tis, so cant comment... T_T
i usually go 2 temple b4 exam oni ( no wonder it din help).. think shud b more sincere liao me..lol..
yea no prob.. just dun ss enuf le... hahha... :P
to put: haha, i seldom even go temple, pray in heart only, cz normally won't have time to go b4 exams, haha!
but u say xia say xia,i sudd realised i 4get to pray for my coming exams leh....aiya~~
to vincent: haha, sedang ss liao! how? u praise wo...
Wah, so nice!! The temple in Australia much better and nicer than Ann Arbor leh...If you got chance, go see Ven Ajahn Brahmavamso. He is an interesting speaker....Oh, forget...you dont go dharma talk one hor..haha!! Take care yeah!!
wahh 2 days only so many comments liao....
haha, i wonder which 1 of ur pictures show a temple....maybe got 1 take too near, show 3 buddha, look like temple? haha...
and wat song liao de oo??? u 还童listen 2 儿歌 arr??
haha...
to ken chong: it is not a temple la! it's a piazza...but they really decorated it nicely as it is an annual big function in brisbane. aiya, u now sincerely ask me listen Dharma talk or purposely come n tease me leh??
to jien: ya, maybe that is the photo that confused, or perhaps that is the general misconception that Buddhism function is held in temple gua....
cheh, i like that song a! so what? u blow meh?? that's a song regarding Buddhism de la!
so many people left comment...
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