Happy and Learning about Buddhism ~The final day of Children’s Happy Camp

The second and final day of the Children’s Happy Camp was held on Saturday 16 January. The 45 children arrived 9am and started their first activity, ‘Buddha says’, followed by a class given by Malaysian Ex-Principal Mr Xie Kun. He showed them a video on ‘Life is Short’ to encourage them to live life to the fullest and to be happy children. He taught them the three magic words; please, thank you and sorry and explained to the children that one has to be happy before one can bring happiness to others. He also encouraged the children to practice the three good acts and four givings in their daily life.
During lunch, the children were taught formal Buddhist mealtime etiquette by Venerable Rulian. After lunch they were split into five groups to play games including Dharma Hunt, obstacle course and tried out some simple stunts of the hip hop dancing.
The camp came to an end in the late afternoon and many parents and members of the BLIA committee attended the closing ceremony. It began with the singing of the ‘Ode to the Triple Gem’ followed by guidance from Venerable Abbess Manshin. Venerable Manshin asked the children to share what they had learned during the two days. The children’s response was over-whelming. Some even said that they dreamt of the happy camp. Venerable Manshin hoped that the children would be able to practice saying good things, doing good things, have good intentions, offer others confidence, happiness, convenience and hope by setting a good example at home. The camp ended with a group chanting competition. Each group was given a gift to show appreciation for their participation but the group with the highest accumulated scores over the two days was awarded a bigger prize which included a bouquet of chocolates for the group members to share.