FGS South Island Welcomed Spring with Laba Congee
The sharing of Laba Congee with the public carried out by Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island commenced on 8th November and was successfully completed on 11th November 2018. In all, 3400 portions of Laba congee were distributed. The recipients of the congee were very happy with such gesture and expressed their gratitude to FGS South Island for their effort. A big percentage of the recipients of the Laba congee were factory owners, business people and members of Associations. They were pleased to have the opportunity to taste the delicious congee and to understand the connection between Buddha’s Enlightenment Day with Laba Congee sharing.
In the past years, like most of the other FGS Temples all over the World, FGS South Island would distribute Laba congees only on the actual Buddha’s Enlightenment Day which falls on the beginning of the year. But this time, in view of the fact that many of the Chinese devotees will go back to their home countries beginning the month of December and will miss the opportunity to taste the congees, FGS South Island has decided to hold the event earlier and also to intensify the publicity of the event so that more people would be able to taste the congees before going back to their home countries to celebrate Lunar New Year.
This year, most of the public taking part in the congee sharing were first timers. They learned about the event through pamphlets, social media, e-mails and posters. Through collecting the congees personally from the Temple, they came to FGS Temple and were greatly impressed by its tranquil environment. On a side note, many of them called back to tell how delicious the congees were and requested for more.
At the congee collection centre in the Temple, members of Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island handed out pamphlets on ‘VEGE PLAN A‘ and ‘2018 FGS NZ VEGEFEST’ to get more people to participate in the event and received good response from the people.
During the four day ‘Laba Congee Sharing’ period, the following number of congees were distributed: in the first day, 1200 packets; in the second day, 800 packets; in the third day, 700 packets; and in the fourth day, 700 packets. The total number for this year was four times that of last year. From the experience gained through the four days, the kitchen team managed to master the technics of cooking the congees well and fast. It took them only two hours to cook 700 packets of congees. At the same time, through the esprit de corps spirit, the team managed to carry out the packing and delivery of the congees effectively and swiftly.
With the experience gained this year, members of BLIA South Island hope that they can improve on the congee sharing activity next year, distributing to more people, so as to spread the wisdom and compassion of Buddha to more families, bringing them blessings and joy.