Community Corner

Lunar New Year Celebration at Santee's Buddhist Temple

Lunar New Year was a week ago, but the weekend was a time of celebration at the Buddhist Temple in Santee. See the photo gallery and video.

Do you know there is a Buddhist Temple in Santee?

Most Santeeans I've spoken with only know the as they drive past it on Fanita Drive. Because of this, Santee Patch will be covering events there with some regularity, with photo galleries and video so Santeeans can get a better idea of a unique place of worship amongst Santee's religious institutions.

Sundays ceremony included Vietnamese traditional dress, a ceremony to pray for senior members of the temple and a vegetarian feast afterwards.

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explained the Lunar New Year in this way:

"The Lunar New Year – Tet in Vietnamese - is the most important holiday of Vietnamese people. It is celebrated for three days and it is the time for family reunions, exchanging best wishes and fortunate money that is wrapped in red envelope. For Vietnamese people New Year means new hope and times. The Tet holiday will have a strong influence on the whole year, so people do good things with utmost sincerity to welcome good luck for the whole family.

Find out what's happening in Santeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"For Vietnamese people who are living abroad, the temple is one of the sacred places for them to pray for a bright New Year, and also a place for them to experience the atmosphere of the Tet holiday. Temple therefore is the place that helps people to cultivate spiritual life and the place for Vietnamese people to celebrate traditional activities.

"The New Year ceremony focuses on the peace of oneself and the peace of the world. With the strong belief in the 'Law of Causes and Effects,' in which one good thing will be affect another, New Year ceremony is a sacred time for Buddhist followers promise to do good thing by purifying their minds, speeches, and actions. New Year ceremony is also the time for people to pray to the Buddha to support their wishes- a New Year with healthy,happiness and auspicious blessings." 

On Sunday, Feb. 13, will preside over what he calls "the most important ceremony to pray for peace as a Buddhist traditional activity."

Check back on Monday for more photos and video.

Santee Patch would love to cover your religious, or non-religious festival or celebration as well. Send an email to Steven.Bartholow@patch.com.


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