BATAM - The celebration of Vesak Day at Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Batam City, Riau Islands, is a little different from the previous one. The celebration, in the form of a convention, was held one day before the date set by the government, namely Monday, May 16.
According to Liyas Masri, administrator of Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya, the celebration was carried out by holding a service on Sunday, May 15.
This difference is due to Maha Vihara Duta following the calculation of the Lunar calendar.
"According to the Lunar calendar or Chinese New Year, Vesak Day falls on May 15, while the national date is today, so we take a different calendar," said Liyas Masri, as reported by Antara, Monday, May 16.
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In addition, Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya also did not hold an art festival and a vegetarian culinary bazaar during this year's Vesak Day.
"The reason for not holding art events to culinary bazaars is because it requires long preparation, it takes 2-3 months. Meanwhile, 2 months ago in Batam there were still active COVID-19 cases," he said.
Although this year there was no festive celebration of Vesak Day, the monastery also carried out Vesak Sharing activities to distribute 3,000 packages of vegetarian food to nursing homes and nursing homes.
Luyas Masri added, as many as 8,500 Buddhists participated in the service held yesterday which started from 6.30 to 20.00 western Indonesia time.
"So if we have scheduled worship services for our people, there are around 500 people, while for the public visits, about 8,000 people," said Liyas.
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