Buddhism in Réunion

Buddhism is practised by the Chinese community. Many of them are Chinese who became Roman Catholics. There are some beautiful Buddhist temples in the island.

Festivals of Buddhists in Réunion

• Qingming jie, festival of the Pure Light. To the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the festival of the Pure Qingming Light is specifically devoted to the ancestors. On the family furnace bridge and the tombs, the ancestors of the family receive food offerings. Candles are lit, of the incense sticks are consumed. Very followed with the Meeting, this worship is one of the bases of the Chinese culture. One finds it in all the religious and spiritual practices of old China: Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism. Qingming jie is intended to honour the spirits with the members missing from the family so that they continue to rest in peace and take care on their descent.
• Chinese New Year's Day. The festival of the Chinese New Year's Day is most known of all réunionnais them (at the end of January). And due: it is marked as of the morning and until late in the night by the din of the detonators. By this backfire, the children endeavour to their larger cheek to frighten and draw aside the bad spirits of the festivities. The Chinese New Year's Day is marked by public cultural activityc(ap)s, processions, spectacles of dance which contribute to make it very popular. The midnight supper takes place in family or, more and more often, outside in a restaurant under the aegis of one of the Chinese religious organizations. The New Year's Day is one of the rare moments of the year, if not only, where the Chinese shops are closed.
• The festival of Guan Yu. Severe, bearded figure and moustachue, generally painted in red, this divinity is very popular in China, especially in the south from where the Chinese immigrants of the Meeting are originating. The two Chan temples of Saint-Denis and the Hakka temple of Saint-Pierre make of Guan Yu the central figure their worships. Celebration Guan Yu.
• The Yang Double or Double-Nine. In the Chinese thought, the even figures are yin and the odd figures are yang. Last nines is thus the highest yang. Consequently, the ninth day of the ninth month of the year is one day special: the chongyang or double yang. There is exerted the maximum power of the principle yang, source of power, success, happiness, light of the spirit. In China, this festival is placed under the sign of the chrysanthemum, the flower of gold, in which the Wise ones of old China saw the symbol of simplicity and from humility because it is the last of the year to be opened, it goes from there of course differently with the Meeting.

Note

• This article is the English translation from original French websites