Bai Dinh Pagoda Summer Retreat organizes flower lantern ceremony to pray for national peace and prosperity

On the evening of June 17, at the Bai Dinh Pagoda International Conference Center, the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha of Ninh Binh province in coordination with Bai Dinh Pagoda organized a flower lantern ceremony to pray for national peace and prosperity, favorable weather, world peace, and people's happiness.

Many delegates and students attended the flower lantern ceremony.

Attending the ceremony were delegates of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha; the Executive Committee of the Ninh Binh Provincial Buddhist Sangha; representatives of the Provincial Police; Department of Home Affairs; Xuan Truong Construction Enterprise; more than 1,500 trainees and volunteers of the 9th Bai Dinh Pagoda Summer Retreat, 2023.

At the flower lantern ceremony, the delegates and students were presented by the Organizing Committee of the Bai Dinh Pagoda Summer Retreat about the meaning of the flower lantern ceremony - a traditional spiritual culture of Vietnamese Buddhism, aiming to guide people towards truth, goodness, beauty, and reduce greed, anger, jealousy, envy, and hatred.

After the incense offering and prayer ceremony, the Organizing Committee and the students performed the lantern parade and offering ceremony around the S-shaped map of Vietnam and the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos decorated with light from candles and lotus flowers.

The students calmed their minds, held flower lanterns in their hands with solemnity and respect to pray for national peace and prosperity, favorable weather, world peace, and people's happiness; to pray for the students to always be healthy, safe, obedient, study well, become good children and good students to help their families, society and country.

The flower lantern ceremony to pray for national peace and prosperity is one of the useful and meaningful activities in the series of activities of the 9th Bai Dinh Pagoda Summer Retreat in 2023 with the theme "Returning to the Source".

The flower lantern ceremony to pray for national peace and prosperity is one of the activities of the Bai Dinh Pagoda Summer Retreat.

The retreat was attended by more than 1,500 students and volunteers from 26 provinces and cities across the country. The retreat is an opportunity for students to rest and reduce stress after months of studying; a useful playground during the summer vacation; an opportunity for students to reflect on themselves; to receive information from the Organizing Committee about a loving, understanding, filial, and responsible lifestyle; students also have the opportunity to experience visiting the ancient Bai Dinh pagoda, participate in art competitions, and propaganda sessions on traffic safety, social evils, and drowning... The retreat will be held from June 14-18, 2023.

Hong Van - Minh Quang