FGS South Island NZ Celebrates Mother’s Day With High Tea
On 8th May, 110 people from Christchurch attended the annual Mother's Day celebration at Fo Guang Shan (FGS) in South Island, New Zealand. At the event, Venerable Jue Xi led the devotees to recite the Heart Sutra and Venerable Master Hsing Yun's Prayer for Mothers, and later gave out gifts to the attendees. Venerable Jue Xi praised every mother's hard work and lifelong dedication to their family and she especially thanked those mothers who arranged time to visit the temple to provide and participate in activities while making good connections with the public. She would like to take this opportunity to wish all mothers peace and health, happiness and wisdom.
Buddha's Light International Association (BLIA) South Island New Zealand President Bernie praised the greatness of mothers, thanking them for kindly raising children from birth and wished them happiness and good fortune. BLIA South Island director Mei-Hwa Chen also thanked the many BLIA mothers for their dedication to the temple and for showing such loving care towards everyone as if they were like her own mother. BLIA South Island NZ First Chapter President Louisa Kuo was grateful to the temple for taking care of the community and for their long-standing dedication to BLIA in organising various activities. The BLIA members presented flowers to Venerable Jue Xi and in return, Venerable represent the temple gave auspicious packets to everyone who attended the gathering.
A sumptuous lunch buffet and English high tea was prepared to give thanks to all the BLIA mothers. The buffet included a variety of Chinese and Western meals and refreshments, a hot food area and a variety of hot and cold beverages for the attendees to enjoy. This making a warm and happy holiday for the mothers.
Oil and watercolor Artist Zhang Hai-Hua from Beijing, hand-painted cards as gifts to the mothers who attended the event. As a mother with two daughters, she can relate personally to the hardships of motherhood. So, she used watercolor to paint realistic impressions of roses on the cards, symbolizing the pure love of mothers for their children. A total of 35 hand-painted Mother's Day cards were given out on that day.
The attendees were very satisfied with the meaningful event and were pleased with the food, venue and the services provided. Some of the attendees were introduced to the temple by this event and appreciated the beautiful and quiet environment and the delicious vegetarian meals. They said they would come to the temple to visit the art exhibition in the future and will recommend their family and friends to dine at Water Drop Teahouse.