Asalha Puja 2028: Date, History & Significance

Buddhists observe the day with visits to the vihara, offerings of flowers, candles and incense, the taking of the precepts, the chanting of the first sermon, and listening to Dhamma talks. It is followed the next day by the start of Vassa, the three-month rains retreat, when monks remain in one monastery and many lay people take up extra practice. In India it coincides with the Hindu Guru Purnima.

After his awakening, the Buddha went to find the five companions who had practised austerities with him. In the deer park at Isipatana (Sarnath) he taught them that the way to the end of suffering lies neither in indulgence nor in extreme self-denial, but in the Middle Way of the Eightfold Path, and set out the Four Noble Truths. One of the five, Kondañña, understood, and the Buddha said 'Kondañña knows' — the first person to see the Dhamma, and the Sangha began.

Source: The scriptures and calendar of the tradition; community religious practice in India

Asalha Puja is a major poya (full-moon) day in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia; in India it is kept by the Buddhist communities and at Sarnath, and overlaps with Guru Purnima. It is not a separate national holiday.

• Wikipedia

1. The full moon of Asalha recalls the Buddha's first sermon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, to five ascetics at the Deer Park in Sarnath.
2. Lay followers go to the vihara, offer dana to the monks before noon, take the eight precepts, and listen to the sutta being chanted; in the evening a candle procession circles the shrine three times.
3. The next day monks begin Vassa, the three-month rains retreat.

• Sarnath, Bodh Gaya, and Buddhist communities (Ladakh, Sikkim, the Northeast, the Deccan Ambedkarite Buddhists). Vihara worship, chanting of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, precepts and Dhamma talks; the eve of the Vassa rains retreat.

• Dana food — Rice, curries and fruit offered to the monks before midday, then shared among the lay visitors.

Asalha Puja (Dhamma Day) is kept on the day when Purnima of Ashadha Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Thursday, 6 July 2028. Purnima holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

The full moon of Ashadha (June–July); the day before the rains retreat begins. The Theravada Buddhist observances follow the full moon (poya) of the lunar month.

A lunar date: Purnima of the bright half of Ashadha drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.