Cultural Extravaganza of Vesak Festival – The biggest day of Buddhist Calendar

The ‘Festival of Lights’ lit the whole of the beautiful island nation once again this May promoting religious joy, the happiness of giving and peaceful harmony. Vesak is a festival that you should not miss when you’re on Sri Lanka holidays as it is one of the major festivals of the country. With a premier travel agent such as Sri Lanka Holiday Travel you can also plan your holiday to experience this most wonderful festival.

Vesak commemorates 3 very important events in the Buddhist history- the birth, enlightenment and the passing away of Gautama Buddha. On Vesak, which fell on the 3rd & 4th of May this year, temples were filled with devotees. As usual it didn’t stop there as Vesak spreads into the streets and homes as well with devotees putting up decorations of dazzling paper lanterns, oil lamps and intricate ‘kudu’. There were also, as usual, many stunning pandals set up around the country at various Vesak zones. This year, the popular Buddha Rashmi National Vesak zone in Colombo was declared open by President Maithripala Sirisena with the attendance of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe.