Lesson video

Our key question for today's lesson is, which festivals do Buddhists celebrate? So in this lesson, we'll be learning about one Buddhist festival in particular and that's the festival called, Wesak.

We'll learn about why this festival is so special to Buddhists and the traditions that they observe during Wesak.

Finally, we'll learn about the Noble Eightfold Path, which Buddhists reflect upon during Wesak.

In this lesson, you'll need your exercise book or a piece of paper, a pencil and your brain.

Pause the video now, so you can get those things if you don't already have them.

Let's take a look at our Star Words.

I'm going to say the Star Words and I want you to repeat them after me.

Buddhism, enlightenment, meditation, Buddha, Wesak, The Noble Eightfold Path.

Great work.

Wesak.

Now around the world, Buddhists celebrate important events in Buddha's life.

And the most important of these days is Wesak, which is also known as Buddha day.

On this page, you can see some images.

And these are all images of Wesak happening in different places around the world and you can see that it's often celebrated using lights.

Complete the sentence below.

Buddha day is also known as.

Pause the video now, so you can complete this sentence.

Let's have a look at the answer and see if you got it right.

Buddha day is also known as Wesak.

Now, make sure you've spelt Wesak correctly.

Pause the video now, so you can check that you've spelt Wesak correctly.

Great work, everyone.

Let's move on.

Wesak.

Let's carry on learning about it.

Now, Wesak takes place on in either April, May or June.

And it always takes place when there is a full moon.

This year Wesak took place on Thursday the 7th of May 2020.

Now, Buddhists believe that Wesak is the day that the Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment and died.

It represents all three important events in the Buddha's life.

Now, the reason why Wesak falls on a different day each year is because the Buddhist calendar is based upon the cycles of the moon.

You need to choose the correct answer from these below.

Wesak falls on a different day every year because, A, Buddhists can't agree about when the Buddha was born.

B, it falls on the day of his birth, then the day of his enlightenment and finally the day of his death or C, it is based on the cycles of the moon.

Pause the video now and choose the correct answer.

Did you get the right answer? Were you listening carefully? Let's have a look.

So, it's C.

It's based on the cycles of the moon.

Now during Wesak, Buddhists may gather together in a temple and chant together.

And Buddhists celebrate the most important things in Buddhism.

And in particular, they celebrate something called the Three Jewels.

So, the Three Jewels.

Let's look at them in a little bit more detail.

The first jewel is the Buddha.

The second jewel is the Dharma.

Do you remember the Dharma at Buddhist teachings? And three is Sangha or community.

I say Sangha, you say community.

Sangha, Sangha, community.

I wonder if you said Sangha or did I manage to trick you? Okay, so let's go through those three again.

The Buddha, the Dharma, Sangha or community.

Can you try to say this to me again? Great work.

Let's move on.

I'd like you to complete this task.

You need to answer the question below using the images to help you.

What are the Three Jewels? Pause the video now and write down the Three Jewels.

Use the pictures to help you.

Did you remember all three Jewels? Remember, we were chanting them and you said them.

I wonder if you got all three.

Let's have a look.

Fantastic work, everyone.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you managed to remember all three of them.

They were the Buddha, the Dharma and Sangha or community.

Pause the video now, so you can tick or fix your answers.

Great work.

We're going to read some information about Wesak.

I'm going to read along and you can read along with me at home.

In other religions, festivals are often aimed at worshipping or celebrating a God.

However, Buddhism has no God.

This means that Wesak is not a celebration of Buddha, but rather what he taught and what he achieved.

A statue of Buddha may be used as a focus point but this does not mean that it is Buddha himself who is being worshipped.

On this page, you're going to look at two statements and you need to decide whether they're true or false.

Remember to use the information on the page to help you.

Let's have a look at them.

True or false? One, Buddhists worship God during Wesak.

Two, a statue of Buddha is always used as a focus point for worship.

True or false? Pause the video now, so you can answer these questions by writing, true or false.

Let's have a look at the answers.

One, Buddhists worship God during Wesak.

That of course is false.

Did you remember that there is no Buddhist God? Great work, everyone.

Two, a statue of Buddha is always used as a focus point for worship.

Well that's false, because the statue of Buddha is not always used but a statue of Buddha may be used.

Let's move on.

We're going to learn about three traditions the Buddhists practise during Wesak.

Let's have a closer look.

One, bathing the Buddha.

Buddhists will pour water over a statue of the Buddha to clean him of greed and desire and ignorance.

These are wrong thoughts and so need to be washed away.

Two, noble deeds.

To follow the Buddha's teaching of right action, Buddhists may perform charitable acts during Wesak.

This could be making donations to charity, helping the needy in a community or looking after the sick.

Three, releasing birds.

Buddhists may also release caged birds during Wesak.

This symbolises freeing the mind and also shows how all creatures should be free and happy.

So, those three traditions.

Bathing the Buddha, noble deeds and releasing birds.

What are those three traditions? Can you cover up your screen and remember them? That's right.

Bathing the Buddha, noble deeds and releasing birds.

Let's move on to the next task.

Answer the question below.

What are three traditions that Buddhists practise during Wesak? Think back to the last slide.

Pause the video and write down the three traditions that we just learned about.

Did you remember those three traditions? Let's have a look.

Bathing the Buddha, noble deeds and releasing birds.

Pause the video now, so you can tick or fix your answers.

Okay, we're going on to the last part of our lesson today.

This part of the lesson is all about the Noble Eightfold Path to enlightenment.

Now, the Noble Eightfold Path is meant to further unpack the Threefold Path to enlightenment that we learned in our last lesson.

Now, it offers Buddhists with a practical guide for how to live their lives.

And Buddhists try to think about all of the truths at the same time.

They think about how they can apply all eight to their lives, to be better people but also to try and reach enlightenment.

During Wesak, especially, Buddhists reflect on these eight, falling on the Eightfold Path and they think about what they can do to follow them.

Let's have a look at each of these eight paths.

Right understanding or perfect view.

Right resolve or perfect intention.

Right speech or perfect speech.

Right action or perfect action.

Right livelihood, the perfect means of making a living.

That relates to the job that you do.

Right effort, perfect attitude.

Right mindfulness or perfect concentration.

Right meditation or perfect meditation.

Have a closer look at all of those eight paths.

Pause the video while you do that.

Now, you've had a closer look at those eight paths.

We're going to do a task.

On this slide, you can see on the left-hand side of the slide, there are the eight paths or truths.

We just looked at them on our last slide.

On the right-hand side of the slide, there are eight actions.

They are labelled A to H.

Each of these actions relate to one of the Eightfold Paths.

We need to link them together.

The first thing we're going to do is read each of the actions.

So, I've got my pointer.

Let's read through them.

A, living a good, living a life of good actions by respecting others and refraining from violence and theft.

B, making an effort to avoid negative thoughts and feelings.

C, understanding that the noble truths are noble and true.

D, using meditation to try to reach enlightenment.

E, having a clear sense of one's own mind and health.

F, avoid speaking badly of other people, of people or gossiping.

G, not doing a job that forces you to harm or hurt others.

H, resolving to practise the Buddhist faith.

Now, I can see that these eight actions link in some way to the eight truths or paths.

I need to look for clues.

The first truth or path is right understanding.

What I can see in C, there's the word understanding.

And it says, understanding that the noble truths are noble and true.

So, I think that that action links to that noble truth.

I would write that action next to that truth.

It's your job to have a look at all of the actions and all of the Eightfold Paths and link each of the actions to one of the paths.

You can write them next to each other in your book.

Pause the video now, while you complete that task.

That was a really tricky task.

You have to look really carefully for the clues between the truths or paths and the actions.

I wonder if you got all of those right.

Let's have a look at the next slide where I reveal the answers.

Have a close look and mark your own answers in your own book.

You can tick or fix the answers that you got right or edit the answers that you need to change.

Pause the video now, so you can do that.

Great work, everyone.

That was a really tricky task and you did really well and you did a fantastic job for trying.

Don't worry if you didn't get them all right the first time, but well done if you managed to.

Great job.