Fo Guang Shan (North Island) ~ The Spirit of Spring

Finally , winter is over and spring is here. Spring is heralded once again with the chirping and singing of birds in the garden and the fragrance of flowers everywhere. The trees are becoming full again. In the temple we have perennials as well as deciduous plants. So it is an ever changing and refreshing sight according to the seasons. Spring is a time of sunshine and colours. The colourful freesias outside the front shrine is testimony that spring is here. Venerable Rulian, Hao Tin and Ann Jo cut the flowers and offered them to the Buddha. This caught the attention of the temple visitors. They wanted to know where to buy some. The idea of growing the freesias in the camellia pots was to keep the birds away as they often dig for food there. Coincidentally, this blends well with the temple’s surrounding.

The cherry blossom trees are deciduous. They change their looks with every season. They are green in summer, red in autumn , totally bare in winter to conserve energy and welcome spring with sweet colours. Some cherry trees in the foreground of the temple have blossomed and injected a different look to the temple. Over the years, spring has attracted many visitors to the temple. Many come equipped with their cameras to take pictures of the cherry blossoms especially the 56 trees along the path to Buddhahood. This was also the beginning of the Cherry Blossom Festival back in 2006 which subsequently became an annual event.

This year the event will be held on 16 & 17 October. Many programs have been lined up such as the Open Day ,Adulthood Ceremony , Baby Blessing, Prince & Princess Pageant, Renewal of Matrimonial Vow, Cherry Blossom Tea Party and others. We also received many calls from locals enquiring about the blooms. Last year, we had an early season and the flowers were already falling when we held the festival. This year, we moved the event two weeks earlier but we had a late winter and haven’t seen the flowers along the path yet. Will they blossom on time in two weeks and pleasantly surprise all of us? We definitely look forward to be pleasantly surprised.