DDM Celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is a traditional day for family reunions in the Chinese society. To celebrate this special day, Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) hosted a gala on 24 September, 2007 at the DDM World Center for Buddhist Education in Jinshan, Taipei.
To ensure that both parents and children could enjoy themselves and celebrate the Moon Festival together, DDM organized numerous art stalls where families could try their hands at various Taiwanese folk arts. Participants could learn Chinese crocheting, cloth doll knitting, flower arranging and pottery and also learn to make dough figurines and kites.
The stalls officially opened at 1 P.M and by that time many kids had already gathered outside the Auditorium that housed the stalls, eager to start their chosen activity. Inside the Auditorium, Venerable Master Sheng Yen's publications and an array of eco-friendly gifts were also on display to spread DDM's ideal of protecting the spiritual environmental.
The activities came to an end at 5 P.M in time for participants to make their way to the Grand Buddha Hall where a series of performances organized by the Dharma Drum Young Buddhist Society was be held.
The show ran from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M. starting with a drum performance given by a group of children aged between four and six. The performance was sweet and nonetheless elicited a powerful response from the audience and filled the Grand Buddha Hall filled with happiness.
Dharma Drum Young Buddist Society describes the theme uniting the different performances as "uplifting the character of humanity to build a pure land on earth". Approximately 200 people sat in the audience, including members of the DDM Sangha and followers from different districts of Taipei.
Venerable Guo Dong, the Abbot of DDM, gave a speech on the Moon Festival encouraging people to cherish their encounters with one another on the day and to actively work on purifying the mind; the idea of protecting the spiritual environment as proposed by Venerable Master Sheng Yen.
The celebration concluded 8:30 PM and was hailed as a success.
(reported & photos taken by Jin Yang/edited by DDM Australia Editing Team)
