Buddha's Birthday

The Buddha's Birthday is an important day of celebration for Buddhists around the world. The holiday is traditionally celebrated in most of East Asia to commemorate the birth of the Prince Siddhartha Gautama. He is the founder of Buddhism, and is also known as the Gautama Buddha. The Buddha was born into the royal family around 563/480 BCE in Nepal. After six years of ascetic practice, Siddhartha attained full enlightenment at the age of thirty five. As a result he became known as Buddha, or the awakened one. He died at the age of eighty in India. The exact date of Buddha's birthday is based on the Asian lunisolar calendars. It is primarily celebrated in Baisakh month of the Buddhist calendar and the Bikram Sambat month of the Hindu calendar. The date varies from year to year in the Western Gregorian calendar. However, it usually occurs in April or May and in leap years it may be celebrated in June.