Three colors of roses in the Vu Lan festival.

(Baonghean.vn) - Unlike ordinary people, who wear red roses for those whose mothers are still alive, and white roses as a token of gratitude and remembrance for their deceased parents, monks wear yellow roses during the Vu Lan festival.

Vu Lan, a festival honoring parents and grandparents, is celebrated annually in the seventh lunar month and has become a beautiful cultural tradition of the Vietnamese people, marking the beginning of a season of showing gratitude and filial piety. It is an occasion for younger generations to express their love and remember the nurturing and upbringing provided by their parents and grandparents.

On this holiday, in addition to rituals such as giving thanks, giving sermons on filial piety, and releasing floating lanterns, pinning a rose on one's clothing holds special significance and is considered a festival for Vietnamese people in general and Buddhist monks and followers in particular.

Pink, white, and red

Those who still have both parents are fortunate enough to wear a red rose on their chest. (Photo: Internet)

The tradition of wearing a rose on one's lapel during the Vu Lan festival originated from an idea by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. According to the Zen Master, the rose, in the Vietnamese perspective, symbolizes love and nobility. Therefore, this flower was chosen as the symbol for the Vu Lan filial piety festival in Buddhism.

With heartfelt respect and remembrance of the nurturing love of one's parents, pinning a rose to one's chest is the most beautiful expression of gratitude and a profound lesson in the sacred virtue of filial piety. Therefore, those who still have their parents are fortunate enough to wear a red rose, while those who have lost their parents wear a white rose as a token of appreciation and remembrance.

For those who have lost both parents, a white rose serves as a token of gratitude and remembrance. (Image: Internet)

Golden Rose

Monks and nuns have renounced worldly life to live the life of ascetics. They use the physical body given to them by their parents to "seek liberation above and save sentient beings below." Achieving enlightenment is the most wonderful way to repay their parents' kindness, both in this life and in many past lives.

Instead of wearing a red or white rose to represent one's living parents—which is perfectly proper and in accordance with the natural order—a monk has a broader, greater, and more sublime parent: all sentient beings. Therefore, wearing a yellow rose signifies this noble ideal.

The monk also wanted to use the color of the yellow flower to express the true spirit of the Vu Lan season, which is liberation. Photo: Internet

According to Buddhism, yellow is the color of liberation, like the supreme field of merit, the color of the Earth. On the earth, we can trample, stomp, plow, spit, or do anything... yet the earth remains unmoved, because the earth is life, patience, nurturing, and accepting of all. Because it considers all sentient beings as parents, relatives, and most importantly, future Buddhas.

Yellow is also the color of wisdom, symbolizing letting go, detachment, non-attachment, and the attainment of liberation.

Therefore, even while immersing themselves in the joyous Vu Lan festival, the monks wish to use the color of yellow flowers to express the true spirit of the Vu Lan season: liberation.

Hoa Le

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