Today is Magha Puja day in Cambodia, 22nd February B.E.2559
Māgha Pūjā, Makha Bucha, or the Full Moon of Tabodwe is an important Buddhist festival celebrated on the full moon day of Māgha in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, and on the full moon day of Tabodwe in Myanmar. The spiritual aims of the day are: not to commit any kind of sins; do only good; purify one's mind. Māgha Pūjā is a public holiday in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand and is an occasion when Buddhists tend to go to the temple to perform merit-making activities.
Māgha Pūjā day marks the four auspicious occasions occurring at the Veḷuvana bamboo grove, near Rājagaha in northern India ten months after the enlightenment of the Buddha. On that occasion, as recorded in the commentary to the Mahāsamayasutta, DN-Comm 20) four marvellous events occurred:
1,250 disciples came to see the Buddha that evening without being summoned.
All of them were Arahants, Enlightened Ones, and
All were ordained by the Buddha himself: Ehibhikkhus.
It was the full-moon day.
On this occasion the Buddha gave those Arahants the principles of Buddhism, called "The ovadapatimokha".[2] Those principles are: To cease from all evil; To do what is good; To cleanse one's mind. In Thailand, this teaching has been dubbed the "heart of Buddhism".
On the evening of Magha full-moon day, each temple in Thailand holds a candlelight procession called a wian thian (wian meaning to circle around; thian meaning candle). Holding flowers, incense and a lighted candle, the monks and congregation members circumambulate clockwise three times around the phra ubosot (ordination hall), once for each of the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
Tver bon: Making merit by going to temples for special observances and join in the other Buddhist activities.
rap sin': Keeping the Five Precepts. Practice of renunciation: Observe the Eight Precepts, practice of meditation and mental discipline, stay in the temple, wearing white robes, for a number of days.
