8th April – 卯月
8th of April is the birthday of Buddha, founder of Buddhism. The temples nationwide cerebrate this day.
2500 years ago, Buddha, the name before was Siddhartha was born in Lumbini flower garden, at the bottom of Himalayas. He was born in Shakya tribe’s royalty so he was a prince. After he turned to be 29 years old, he threw his social status away and became Buddha, and spread Buddhism to the world.
In Japan, 4th of April is the season for cherry blossoms, therefore Japanese named this festival as Flower festival.
Inside the temple, placing a little flower temple called 花御堂 (Hanamidou), and in the middle the birth Buddha statue is located. This statue is pointing sky on the right hand, and pointing ground on the left hand. This posture was made from the story about Buddha – once he was born, he walked seven steps toward each direction and said “天上天下唯我独尊” (Tenjou tenge yuiga dokuson), meaning that in this world, yourself with your character is only yourself (you are very precious), so be proud and go ahead your way.
For this statue, people pour tea called 甘茶(Amacha)= sweet tea, using bamboo ladle to cerebrate Buddha’s birthday. This action was made from the story that when Buddha was born, 9 dragons poured sweet water to the Buddha to clean him. Amacha is believed to have a power to prevent illness.
Some temples have 稚児行列 (Chigo gyouretsu) for this event. For Chigo Gyouretsu, children walk the street with Hanamidou on the top of white elephants. This white elephant has 6 fangs, this was believed that Buddha’s mother saw this elephant on her dream. Before Buddha was born, Buddha’s parents had very hard time to infertility. However after the dream of white elephant walking toward her right armpit to belly, she finally have got baby – Buddha.
Little Japan Dictionary 