Festival of Lights!

 Vesak is known as the festival of light, a very appropriate name since almost all the decorations are in the form of illuminations.

Families prepare decorations in the days preceding Vesak in their homes, consisting of paper lanterns, little clay oil lamps and intricate ‘kudu’ which are large lanterns surrounded by tiny lanterns decorated in many colours. All these are lit up on Vesak evening. The true creative talents of the people in this island emerge during this time as every lantern or ‘kudu’ is unique, and produced with dedicated devotion and piety. In recent years competitions have been organized by private and state institutions to judge the best ‘kudu’, and a very significant feature of these contests has been the innovative use of natural materials such as twigs, jute and leaves, veering away from the common practice of using paper when making these decorations.

This morning we rode out to a friends Book Store. We needed to purchase some copy paper and pencils. On our way to the Book Store we saw many lanterns being hung to decorate the town. There were also small shops selling many different sizes and colors of lanterns.

You will notice that they also hang the Buddhist flag. It is a symbol of faith and peace used throughout the world to represent the Buddhist faith. The six colors represent the colors of aura that emanated from the body of Buddha when He attained Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.

We stopped at one of the members place who was selling lanterns. They look so pretty that I couldn't resist and had to buy one. 

After going to the shop we headed to a funeral. The young lady was a neice to our friend Hilda.

Here I am sitting with our friend Hilda.

Some of the members from our church.

Many people were there to support the family.

Apparently she was hit by a train. She had headphones on and was walking on the tracks. Didn't even hear the train. Really sad.

When someone dies they hang the banners and streamers around their home and down their lanes. In the US people usually wear black at a funeral. Here people wear white. 

I am grateful that I know that when we die our spirits go to heaven. That we will be able to see our loved ones again.

FAMILIES ARE FOREVER!!