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Why is Vesak Day an International Day of the World?
The United Nations had appointed Vesak Day to be the International Day of the World at the 54th UN General Assembly Meeting on December 15th, 1999, the Assembly considered the International recognition of the Day of Vesak No. 174 which specified that Buddhism is one of the oldest religions in the world which has taught the humans’ souls for a long time, it should be praised worldwide, so the Assembly agreed to declare that the Vesak Day, the full moon day in May, is an International Day.
By the proposing of Sri Lanka and the Assembly agreed unanimously by the reason that the Lord Buddha was the Greatest Man who was kind to all human beings. He opened the chance for all religious disciples to study his teaching to prove the truth themselves without changing their religion to Buddhism. He also taught without any compensation. In this determination, the president of the Assembly invited the representative from Sri Lanka to propose his draft and invited the representatives from Thailand, Burma, Singapore, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, India and Spain to deliver their statements which concluded that the Vesak Day is the important holy day for Buddhists worldwide because it is the anniversary day of the Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death. He taught humans to be kind and patient to others and all kinds of animals for peace in their societies which is the UN way. So they requested the Assembly to adopt it which meant that UN adopted the importance of Buddhism as well.
The “Visākha” is Pali which means the sixth month and is “Vaiśākha” in Sanskrit. People in Thailand call it in Pali. Visākha Puja means the worship in the sixth lunar month. However, people in Sri Lanka call it “Vesak” including the UN adopted it as an International Day and use “Vesak” as well, so “Vesak” becomes a common English word.
People in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia will celebrate the Vesak Day on the full moon day of the sixth lunar month. But in Mahayana countries such as Japan, people do not celebrate in the sixth lunar month because the Vesak Day in Mahayana is on the full moon day in the eighth month, so they appoint the Vesak Day on April 8th every year. Some sects in some countries do not appoint the Anniversary day of the Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death on the same day. The Mahayana Buddhists believe that the Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death were not the same day such as they believe that he was born on April 8th, enlightened on December 8th, and passed away on February 15th. So you can see that the important days related to the Lord Buddha in the Mahayana countries are different.
The UN appointed the Vesak Day on the full moon day in the sixth lunar month following the Theravada Buddhism. The reference of Vesak Day in UN documents is not the full moon day in the sixth lunar month because of the lunar calendar. UN holds the full moon day in May as the Vesak Day.
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