FGS South Island celebrated Buddha’s Enlightenment Day
In the celebration of the 2018 Buddha’s Enlightenment Day, Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island organised the sharing of LABA rice congee with the Christchurch public. The sharing activity started on 8th November 2018 and lasted for 4 days till 11th November 2018. In all, the registered quantity for the LABA congee was 3400 bowls, 4 times that of last year, out of which 1200 bowls were distributed on 8th November alone.
At 4 am in the morning of 8th November, led by Temple Venerables, Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island President Bernie, BLIA committee members and volunteers, numbering close to 30, started the preparation of the rice congee. Everybody put in his best effort and the whole team worked like ants towards producing the delicious congee. By 9 am, the cooking was completed. The congee was then put into paper containers, packed and delivered to 28 locations in Christchurch covering factories, business outlets, restaurants and traditional Chinese medical hall. Meanwhile, a continuous stream of public visited the Temple to collect their portions of LABA congee. They were all very pleased and thanked FGS for the special effort in organising the activity.
Due to the many-fold increase in quantity, this year’s Laba Congee sharing activity called for a more demanding coordination in materials purchases and manpower management. Under the guidance of Venerable Abbess Manshin and the leadership of BLIA South Island President Bernie, BLIA committee members started their preparations for this event from early October. These included the printing and distribution of pamphlets, the putting up of notices in internet, visiting and notifying Businesses and Societies, putting up posters and carrying out purchases of cooking materials. For this event, the South Island team was strengthened by the help rendered by Venerable Miao Yu and Young Adults Division (YAD) members from FGS North Island.
Every year, the Buddha’s Enlightenment Day falls on the 8th of December of the lunar calendar. To celebrate the occasion, FGS will prepare LABA rice congee to share with members of the public. FGS South Island has been following this tradition all these years and has received very good response with increasing participation from the public year by year. Through such activity, FGS South Island hopes to come into closer contact with the local community, to promote Humanistic Buddhism and to attract more people to the Temple.