Hanamatsuri (Vesakh)

Hanamatsuri (in Japanese; Vesakh, in sanscrit) is perhaps the most important feast for Buddhists, celebrating the birth of the Buddha Sakyamuni. In various Countries of the Asian Continent, this feast falls in the month of May, but in Japan it is celebrated on April 8th, and is known as "hanamatsuri", the feast of flowers. On this occasion the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has been sending for many years an annual congratulatory message to all Buddhists in the world. It is a good and important occasion to practice the so called "dialogue of life" which aims at creating friendly relations among people of different religious traditions.

Hanamatsuri (in Japanese; Vesakh, in sanscrit) is perhaps the most important feast for Buddhists, celebrating the birth of the Buddha Sakyamuni. In various Countries of the Asian Continent, this feast falls in the month of May, but in Japan it is celebrated on April 8th, and is known as "hanamatsuri", the feast of flowers. On this occasion the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has been sending for many years an annual congratulatory message to all Buddhists in the world. It is a good and important occasion to practice the so called "dialogue of life" which aims at creating friendly relations among people of different religious traditions.

Since its beginning, Shinmeizan has supported this practice and cooperated in spreading this message, accompanying it with a personal letter and forwarding it to Buddhist friends, especially to Heads of Buddhist Temples and Buddhist Organizations.

This year, a new element was added to this tradition. After a survey among all the Priests of the Diocese of Fukuoka (where Shinmeizan is situated) to know who was interested in joining in the initiative, a copy of the message from the Pontifical Council was sent to those who had requested it (almost all!) and who had pledged to carry it, or have it carried by some of the Faithful, to a nearby Buddhist temple, or to some Buddhist friends.

Thus, with the cooperation of the diocesan group for interreligious dialogue, about one hundred letters were sent out this year all over the Diocese of Fukuoka (spreading through the three Prefectures of Fukuoka, Saga and Kumamoto) on the occasion of the Buddhist feast of Hanamatsuri, to bring to Buddhists the congratulations and good wishes of the Catholic Church on this festive occasion. And many of these letters were in turn again copied and distributed to several Buddhist friends at the Parish level. Messages were sent out also through Internet.

At the next annual meeting of Priests of the Diocese of Fukuoka, in June, we plan to find out what the reaction to this initiative has been, to see if to try it again next year and... in the future.

An interesting detail of this story is that the Bishop of Fukuoka, Bp. Dominic Ryojy Miyahara, who is a member of the Committee for Interreligious Dialogue of the the Bishops' Conference of Japan, has himself personally visited some Buddhist Temples in the city of Fukuoka, carrying the message from the Pontifical Council and the congratulations of the local Catholic Church.