Vesak or Visakha is an important day for the Buddhists. This is the day when Gautama Buddha`s birth, enlightenment, death and his achievement of Nirvana are celebrated with a lot of fervor. It is generally celebrated in the month of May and the festivities take place on a full moon night. The festival is also popularly known as Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti. Though the exact date of Buddha`s birth is unknown yet the decision to celebrate Vesak was taken at the First Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists in Sri Lanka. A full moon day is chosen because the legends say that Mayadevi, Buddha`s mother, gave birth to him in Lumbini on such a day.

At this conference the members appealed to all the countries to declare the full moon day in May a holiday. Thus they formally announced that Vesak is an important celebration for Buddhism. However, in Buddhist tradition Vesak had been celebrated from a long time. Today in almost all the Asian countries this day is a public holiday.

The significance of Vesak is that it is a time for rededication for the followers of Buddhism. It is also a time to honour Buddha, his Dhamma and Sangha. Though celebrated in different ways in different parts of the world the essence of the celebration is the same everywhere. On this auspicious day all the Buddhist monks and lay devotees are expected to gather in various Buddhist temples before dawn. Then the followers hoist Buddhist flag and sing hymns to praise the sacred Triple Gem. Devotees are allowed to bring simple offerings like flowers, incense sticks and joss sticks. On this holy day various Buddhist places also release birds, insects and animals as a symbolic act of liberation. The devotees listen to the preaching by the monks.

Another remarkable aspect of Vesak is that on this special day efforts are made to bring happiness to the poor, aged, sick and handicapped. The Eightfold Principles of Buddha are once more presented before the world. It is that time of the year when devotees need to remind themselves about these principles and live upto them.

The core reason to celebrate Vesak is to propagate love, peace and universal brotherhood. To live in peace it is important to free one`s mind of the defilements and Vesak is the right time to make a resolution for creating a better world by following Buddha`s principles.