Year of the Rabbit, homage to the thousand Buddhas

To welcome the arrival of the New Year 2011, Fo Guang Shan South Island held the “Homage to the Thousand Buddhas” Dharma function on the morning of 3rd February. Venerable Juexi and Venerable Miaoyu led the 80 devotees through prayer service and the “New Year’s Prayer” gave their New Year’s greeting to the Grand Master, Abbot Xinding of FGS Headquarter and Abbess Manshin of New Zealand. Following the service Venerable Juexi gave a Dharma talk about the New Year’s Scroll written by Grand Master Hsing Yun for 2011 “With a Mind that is Bright and Wise”, and hoped that after the influence of the Dharma, everyone can be more wise in life, to make a resolution to serve the community and more self cultivation. Even though it was not the weekend, the devotees attended that day filled the Buddha hall, once again bringing the New Year’s atmosphere back.

As part of the welcoming of the New Year, a series of programmes were lined up for the devotees and also the customers of the Water Drop Café including the lion dance and many cultural performances. President of the BLIA led students to perform the Chinese Tai-Chi, the Korean group performed a song of their composition, followed by the fierce Japanese martial art performance. Lastly, directors of the BLIA played roles of the Chinese Money god and goddess and gave the audience golden candies as a New Year’s blessing. The estimated participation of the day event was around 250 people.