Maori Haka Dance as Birthday Present

Right after the Santa Parade on December 4, volunteers from all department of the temple gathered and shared their experience in this event. Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) and Young Adult Division (YAD) volunteers from North Island felt really fortunate to have experienced and contributed to everyone in one of South Island’s biggest event, the Santa Parade just in front of Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island in this nice summer weather. Coincidentally, this date is also the birthday of BLIA South Island fulltime volunteer, Ding Lih son; and with that, his partner Feifei Lei specially prepared a birthday cake for him to celebrate. Ding was blissful that he had a great chance to celebrate his birthday with “A Parade that could fill 100,000 people” together with FGS NZ’s Venerable Abbess Manshin, Venerable Miaoyu, BLIA and YAD members from both North and South Island and last but not least his partner Feifei in preparing the birthday cake. Ding also thanked the FGS Buddhist order in having a place here in Christchurch giving him a chance to learn and practice so many different experiences as a BLIA Buddhist practitioner. Everyone in this birthday celebration presented another learning opportunity for Ding, which is New Zealand’s famous Maori Haka Dance for him to practice as a birthday gift. Ding had fun time learning with everyone in this meaningful birthday of his.