Our temple on full moon day🌷

Devotees of the village come to our temple daily. But on Full Moon🌕 Days almost all the villagers come to the temple as the inhabitants of our village are Buddhists. Most of the Buddhist think that the Buddha deserves worship🙏 and veneration only on Full Moon Days. Even our Nayaka Thera in his Full Moon Day anusasana speaks of the importance of coming to the temple on Full Moon Days and listening to the Dhamma sermon on that day. I think this situation should change.

I also went to temple on the Full Moon Day which fell last week on Thursday. I went with my family👨‍👩‍👧‍👦. I collected flowers🌸🌺 to offer to the Buddha statue. My mother took Gilanpasa. That was tea. She also took with her a small bottle full of coconut oil to light the lamps🪔.

When we went to the temple we saw a large number of elderly ladies had observed Ata Sil. Several elderly men were also among them. Devotees in there hundreds were worshiping Buddha Statue, the Vihara and Bo Tree. My mother, my brother and I sat on the sand in front of the Bo Tree and worship the tree. I heard my mother was uttering the stanzas loudly. My brother and I were following her. After worshipping the Bo Tree we went to the Chaithyaya to worship. There we offered flowers and said the stanzas. Afterwards we entered to the Vihara and sat in front of the Buddha statue where there was a large and congested crowd.

The Nayaka Thera came in a short while and delivered the monthly Dhamma sermon. I was listening to him with interest. He was telling the story of Nalagiri, the fierce drunken elephant who had been sent by Devadatta to attack the approaching Buddha.

After listening to the Dhamma sermon we invoked merit to the gods and our dead relations and came home.