First day of Fo Guang Happy Camp

On Friday the 7th of January 2011, the first day of the Children Happy Camp commenced. Registration took place at 8:30am, where the kids were placed into their groups. There were a total of 7 groups and the names were; Habit, Compassion, Determination, Learning, Wisdom, Action and Practice. The group leaders took the children through some ice breaking games to help them to get to know one another. During this time the group leaders also introduced the group chant and encouraged all the children to join in as well. After the icebreaking, the children made their way towards the Guang Ming Hall where they met their teacher Mei Jing, who taught them some basic Buddhist Etiquettes, such as how to greet others around the temple and how to sit and eat. During the Opening Ceremony, the children also had a lot of fun participating in a talk given by Venerable Abbess Manshin. They learnt what the purpose of the camp was, and about the three goods: Do good things; Say good Words and Think Good Thoughts.

Following the Opening Ceremony the group leaders led their groups off towards the dining hall for lunch. The Reverend helped the children turn their knowledge about Buddhist Etiquettes into action as they learnt how to eat a meal inside the temple. In the afternoon, the groups were able to rehearse the play they were going to put on at the closing ceremony the following day. The groups practiced for almost 1 hour before it was time for the best part of the day, the Dharma hunt. The Dharma hunt was similar to a treasure hunt where the groups had to pass obstacles to get clues. Determination group came first, closely followed by Habit and then Compassion. The children were still excited from the Dharma hunt that Angela, the D.O decided to host a game of tag where everyone could run around and have fun. To conclude the first day of Happy Camp, the children all gathered in the Guang Ming Hall once more, this time for tea meditation. Lesley, Chairperson of the English Subchapter took the meditation and told the children to think about all the flavors of the food and to appreciate the process taken for the food to be there. The first day of Happy Camp Concluded at 4pm.