Festivals

The full moon of the month of Vaisakha carries a special meaning for over five hundred million people around the world. Buddha Purnima, known in other traditions as Vesak, marks not one but three pivotal moments in the life of Siddhartha Gautama: the day he was born, the day he attained enlightenment under a pipal tree in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, and the day he passed from this world entirely. That all three are said to have occurred on the same full moon is considered no coincidence. It is called the Thrice Blessed Festival, and the moon that rises over Bhārat on this night carries the weight of all three.

Every April, the wheat fields of Punjab turn gold. The winter crop, sown in October, has spent months drinking from the soil of the Majha, Doaba, and Malwa plains, and now it stands ready to harvest. At the same moment, something is happening in the sky: the sun is crossing the boundary into Mesha, the first sign of the zodiac. Bhārat has been watching this crossing for thousands of years, and it has never stopped celebrating it.