Wishes for Buddha Day

Buddha’s Day is celebrated here in Melbourne in commemoration of the day that the Buddha achieved enlightenment. Where I’m from we call this Visakha Bucha Day, but I get that “Buddha’s Day” is easier to say.

It was an auspicious occasion for STREAT. We had our food carts trading through the weekend for the occasion, and did a bustling trade. Fed Square is a busy place to be during events. On Saturday we did a papaya salad cooking demo so that everyone can have some rocking vegetarian som tam in their life. We also had a tent with information on our works. To those of you who came out and met us—it was great getting to chat.

The organisers put on a Bodhi Tree installation for the occasion. The Bodhi Tree is venerated by Buddhists as a holy tree because it’s what the Buddha sat under when he achieved enlightenment. For the weekend, people attending the festivities could write their wishes on a leaf which was “planted” into St Paul’s Court. Take a look at Andrew’s wish in the banner image above. Lets work to make policy changes like this come true.