On Sunday, April 15, 2012 we celebrate the Songkarn Festival. You may know it by one of its "nicknames" – Thai New Year or the Water Festival.

It is a Thai tradition to give Alms offering to Monks. And in turn, you offer this good deed to relatives who passed away by wishing for them by pouring a small glass of water on a big tree and it is a very good deed and good luck for the beginning of a New Year. This year, as in earlier years there will be a ceremony of sprinkling the Buddha statues and Monks with flower pedals & perfumed water., and, of course, the congregation will also sprinkle perfumed water on each other for good luck and good health and a prosperous New Year. There will be Thai Vegetable and Thai food available.

Magha Puja Day falls on the full moon day of the third lunar month. The date of all of the Thai festivals is based on the lunar calendar so the "American" dates vary from year to year. We will be celebrating Magha Puja Day at Wat Tampa on Sunday, March 11, 2012

This ceremony marks two important dates in the life of Buddha. The first event occurred two years after Buddha’s enlightenment and is referred to as the Fourfold assembly. These events were:

• All 1,250 monks had achieved enlightenment.
• These monks were ordained by Buddha himself
• The monks assembled on their own without being called together.