Celebrate your Vesak

Banners are a big thing around here. If something even mildly exciting or out of the ordinary is happening, most likely it will end up on a banner somewhere. Most of the time, these banners are in Vietnamese and, therefore, basically inaccessible for us. But over the last month or so, a number of yellow and red English banners have been popping up all over town, usually strung across main avenues or near traffic circles.

Here's what the banners say: "The 2008 United Nations Day of Vesak Celebrations." Eh? While it's nice to have a banner to read in English, the main purpose of translating something into English (i.e. communicating something meaningful to English speakers) was lost on me. I understand what the United Nations is, and I understand what a day of celebration is, but I'm at a loss as to what a Vesak is or why on earth I should celebrate it.


I began to grow suspicious that perhaps this was just a made-up holiday--a ploy by greeting card makers and knick-knack vendors to get people to purchase their wares ("Have you bought your parents a Vesak Celebrations card yet? Did you see those cute new Vesak dolls in the market?") I decided to start doing some investigating. First, I asked people from our organization--Westerners who had spent a good amount of time in Vietnam and would likely be able to explain why these banners were up all around town.

The answers I received generally amounted to this: "I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with Buddhism." Not terribly helpful. So much for my Western experts. What I needed was a Vietnamese perspective on the Vesak issue. Things being what they were, though, I forgot all about Vesaks for a while until yesterday afternoon when we were chatting with our language tutor (in English) before our lessons started. Our teacher often has interesting life stories to share and has been a great source of knowledge about Vietnamese culture. Somehow during our conversation one of us mentioned a holiday and her face suddenly brightened.

"Oh!" she said, as if remembering something important. "Did you know that Vietnam has a holiday tomorrow?"

Seeing my chance to learn from a local expert, I sprang on it. "That's right. I've seen the banners up all over town. The 2008 United Nations Day of Vesak Celebrations, right?"

Our teacher nodded and smiled, clearly pleased that I knew what she was talking about. "Yes, yes." I waited for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. Perhaps, I thought, she assumed I was aware of all that a Vesak Celebration entailed.

After a bit of a pause, I continued. "Sooo....what is a Vesak Celebration, then?"

There followed a silent, thoughtful look from our teacher. Finally, an answer: "I'm not sure. I think it has something to do with Buddhism."

P.S. In desperation I finally turned to my knowledgeable friend Google and discovered that Vesak Celebrations indeed have to do with Buddhism. It's kind of a birthday/life/death celebration for Buddha himself. So there you go--no having to scratch your head in confusion if similar yellow banners start appearing in your hometown.