Taking Buddha for a Walk

This last Friday was a Buddhist holiday. The office was closed. Brian, Joanne, and Cho still went to work. It made a long weekend for some people, those that took Saturday off as well. I really don't know anything about Buddhism except that they don't kill anything. I should probably do some research. I know that a few of the Chinese people in the Branch converted from Buddhism. I also know that you want to buy a Buddha with a happy face, so he will bring happiness into your house. If you buy one with a mad, or sad face he will bring those emotions into your home.

Friday evening as we were making dinner, I started to hear these bells ringing, and then I started to hear music. When you "live with the doors open" (as they call it here, when you don't live with AC on all the time,) you don't miss out on much. I started to look around and because the condo faces the ocean it's hard to see behind the building. Joanne and Cho also own another condo on the 16th floor that faces into the mountains. So we ran down there and there was this huge "parade" going on. Joanne said the holiday is "taking Buddha for a walk." Which is the maybe the literal translation. Probably not what the Buddhists call it. They take the Buddha from their temples walk them around town, on what I would call floats. The floats were lined with flowers and offerings. The parades that I am use to are joyous and loud, and they throw candy. This was way more subdued, but at the same time you could feel that it was a happy holiday. The holiday I think celebrates the day Buddha got his "enlightenment." But I could totally be wrong, hence why I should learn more.

There are temples everywhere!!! I am beginning to be able to tell them apart, but there are the mosques, then the Chinese temples. The Indian temple, which are so ornate and gotty. Then the Buddhist temples which are more subdued and beautiful. There is an Indian temple right next to the playground by the mall. Cannon thought it was a carousel. It has these plastic jumping horses on the outside, they look just like carousel horses, I will have to take a picture.

The parade was pretty interesting to watch. There were a lot of floats and tons of people march along. We watched for probably 20 minutes and went back up to finish dinner. But you could hear it going on for a long time afterwards.

It was super interesting to watch and I'm so glad that I am having this new experiences. I think I was a little to sheltered in my life back home. It's good to have my eyes opened to see how truly blessed I am.