3 colors of roses in Vu Lan festival

August 30, 2017 08:34

(Baonghean.vn) - Unlike ordinary people, red roses are for those who still have their mothers, white roses are a way to show gratitude and remember their deceased parents, while monks wear yellow roses during Vu Lan ceremony.

Vu Lan is held in the seventh lunar month every year, becoming a beautiful cultural feature of Vietnamese people, opening the season of filial piety and gratitude. This is an occasion for the younger generation to express their love and remember the upbringing and birthing merit of their parents and grandparents...

On this holiday, in addition to the rituals of giving thanks, preaching about filial piety, releasing flower lanterns... pinning a rose on one's shirt has a special meaning, considered a festival for Vietnamese people in general and monks, nuns and Buddhists in particular.

Pink white - red

Những người còn cha, còn mẹ may mắn được cài lên ngực bông hồng đỏ. Ảnh minh họa.
Those who still have their parents are lucky enough to have a red rose pinned to their chest. Photo: Internet

The rose pinning ceremony in Vu Lan festival originated from the idea of ​​Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. According to the Zen Master, the rose in the Vietnamese perspective is a symbol of love and nobility. Therefore, this flower was chosen as the symbol of Vu Lan festival of filial piety of Buddhism.

With respect, remembering the nurturing grace of the parents and pinning a rose on the chest is the most beautiful sentiment and a profound lesson about the sacred word "filial piety". Therefore, those who still have their father and mother are lucky to pin a red rose on their chest and for those who no longer have parents, a white rose is a form of gratitude and remembrance.

Những người không còn cha mẹ, bông hồng trắng như một sự tri ân, tưởng nhớ. Ảnh: Internet
For those who no longer have parents, white roses are a form of gratitude and remembrance. Photo: Internet

Yellow Rose

Monks have left the secular life to live the life of renunciants. They borrow the body of the four elements given to them by their parents to "above seek liberation, below save sentient beings". The ultimate goal of attaining enlightenment is the most wonderful way to repay gratitude because it is to repay one's parents in this life and in many other lives.

Instead of wearing a red or white rose to indicate one's living parents, that is very correct and in accordance with heaven and earth, but monks have parents who are broader, greater, and more noble. That is all sentient beings, so wearing a yellow rose to show this noble ideal.

người tu sĩ cũng muốn mượn màu sắc của hoa màu vàng để nói lên tinh thần đúng nghĩa của mùa Vu Lan là sự giải thoát.
The monk also wants to borrow the color of yellow flowers to express the true spirit of 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 step on, trample, plow, spit or do anything... the earth remains inert, because the earth is vitality, is patience, carries everything, accepts everything. Because we consider all living beings as our parents, relatives, kin and most importantly, future Buddhas.

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

Therefore, although immersing themselves in the Vu Lan festival, monks also want to borrow the color of yellow flowers to express the true spirit of Vu Lan season, which is liberation.

Pear Flower

(Synthetic)

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