The Yu Lan Festival, also known as the Ullambana Festival or the Ghost Festival, falls on August 18, 2024 (the 15th day of the seventh lunar month in the Chinese calendar). This day is also referred to as the Buddha’s Joyful Day. In accordance with Buddhist rituals, Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou held the Yu Lan Festival Offering Ceremony, reciting The Buddha Speaks the Ullambana Sutra and making offerings to the Buddha. The Abbot of Lingyin Temple Venerable Master Guangquan, the Vice Abbot of Chung Tai Chan Monastery Venerable Master Jianda, and the monastic supervisor of Lingyin Temple Venerable Master Zhiguang were invited to preside over the ceremony. The merits generated from this act are dedicated to all ancestors and those in the present. The kindness of our parents shall be repaid and no deviation from our vows shall be ensured. It is prayed that people in the present shall enjoy longevity and auspiciousness, the deceased ancestors shall be reborn in the Pure Land, and the world shall be peaceful.
The Buddha Speaks the Ullambana Sutra states: “… If the tens of thousands of citizens wish to practice compassionate filial conduct, for the sake of the parents who bore them, as well as for the sake of fathers and mothers of seven lives past, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the day of the Buddhas’ delight, the day of the Sangha’s Pravarana, they all should place hundreds of flavors of foods in the Ullambana basins, and offer them to the Pravarana Sangha of the ten directions. They should vow to cause the length of life of the present father and mother to reach a hundred years without illness, without sufferings, afflictions, or worries, and also vow to cause seven generations of fathers and mothers to leave the sufferings of the hungry ghosts, to be born among men and gods, and to have blessings and bliss without limit.”
