Buddha’s Birthday

The whole family is welcome to join us for our Hanamatsuri service on Saturday, April 5th at 10:00 am at Ryusenji. Hanamatsuri is a Japanese word that translates to “flower festival” and is a celebration of Shakyamuni Buddha’s birthday. During this holiday, we decorate our altars with flowers and bathe an image of the baby Shakyamuni Buddha with fragrant water.

While much of our practice is geared toward adults, Hanamatsuri is very much a family friendly service. We bathe the Buddha to symbolize purifying our body, speech and mind and ridding ourselves of the three poisons: anger, ignorance and greed. Finally, we vow to do no evil, only do good and to save all sentient beings.