2017 is the Year of the Rooster, which the FGS New Year Festival of Light and Peace will welcome with a bang from January 28th until February 25th (days 1-29 of the lunar new year). This month-long festival will take the theme of Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s New Year’s spring couplet, “Rising Dawn of Success.” The hope is for devotees in the coming year to continue to work towards personal and growth development, with courage and determination, with merit and wisdom. Under the four main themes of “cultivation of merit through faith, creation of a legacy of wisdom, ushering the new through creativity, and purification through arts and culture,” we welcome devotees and public alike to the triple treasure of Fo Guang Shan, to experience the peace, warmth, and motivational energy of the New Year Festival of Light and Peace.
Cultivation of Merit through Faith
In times of joy, faith is a bedrock that allows us to share peace and happiness; in times of sorrow, faith is a light that guides us through the darkness.
The aim of Fo Guang Shan is to propagate Humanistic Buddhism; it is committed to transforming our world into a Pure Land on Earth, encouraging people to learn the Dharma, practice with diligence, promote their faith to new levels, expand their horizons, and strengthen their core principles.
In the time of the Spring Festival, coming to Fo Guang Shan to offer light to the Buddha, pray for peace, listen to the chanting of sutras, engage in heart-to-heart with the Buddha, gain virtuous knowledge, uphold right views, and appreciate the beautiful flora and peaceful shrines will surely pacify an agitated heart and boost the spirit.
At the FGS New Year Festival of Light and Peace, you will be able to climb onto the Buddha Museum’s Big Buddha Terrace and pay homage to the Buddha from up close. Under his compassionate gaze, you can express your most heartfelt wishes to the Buddha, as well as make a light offering to pray for the health and happiness of your family. You may also wish to partake in a pilgrimage, Thousand Buddhas Dharma Service, Light Offering Dharma Service, and Great Compassion Repentance Service. Additionally, you may also visit each shrine to pay respects and pray for joy, wisdom, purity, health, happiness, and the riches of the Dharma. Finally, you will have the opportunity to calm the mind through sutra transcription and Chan meditation, letting your body become a temple for practice as you orient yourself towards your future aspirations.
Activity Locations:
- Light Offering Dharma Service – Main Shrine
- Pilgrimage – Non-Duality Gate to Main Shrine
- New Year Blessings Dharma Service – BM Jade Buddha Shrine
- Sutra transcription and recitation – Amitabha Chanting Hall and Sutra Transcription Hall; Sutra Repository Main Hall; BM Twin Pavilions Teahouse, Big Buddha Terrace
Creation of a Legacy of Wisdom
There’s a saying that goes: “Inheriting a family fortune is incomparable to inheriting a skill.” To pass on religion, faith, morality, diligence, education, and knowledge to one’s descendants in place of monetary wealth will give one’s descendants a boundless lifetime’s supply of inner wealth.
“To Propagate Dharma through Culture” and “To Foster Talents through Education” are two of the Four Objectives of Fo Guang Shan. Culture and education are used to cultivate the seeds of bodhi wisdom in each of us, while the Three Acts of Goodness and Four Givings allow the mercy and wisdom of the Dharma to blossom through the Five Harmonies.
The formless wealth of the Dharma is the most precious legacy of all. As families rejoice together in the FGS New Year Festival of Light and Peace, the younger generation will inherit wisdom, while the older generation will receive merit. In your new year, may you face external poverties with your inner wealth; may you face external difficulties with your inner strength. May we all be happy and secure, carefree and unhindered.
You can check out all of the stations around the monastery and collect blessings for your future aspirations. You will be able to formally deposit treasures into the underground palace, practice sutra calligraphy, witness the legacy of compassion and wisdom, strike the bell of blessings to send your heartfelt wishes to the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. You may also pray for world peace, taste the warmth of rice porridge and Chan tea, practice giving generously, chant Amitabha’s name, and experience the bliss of the Pure Land.
Activity Details
- Depositing treasures into the underground palace and sutra calligraphy Dharma service – BM Main Hall
- Striking the bell of blessings – FGS Main Shrine and BM Bell Tower
- Paying Homage – all FGS and BM shrines
- Light Offering – all over FGS monastery
- Collecting stamps – all FGS and BM stations
Ushering the New through Creativity
Do you want to experience a year of new meaning, one that is distinct from all the others before it? Come join us at the FGS Light Offering Service, where you can turn all of your creative ideas into action! The Three Acts of Goodness Wonderful Year Parade, which will start from FGS and end at the BM, will surely radiate joy from its drummers, dancers, and flower-adorned floats.
Celebrating Fo Guang Shan's 50th Anniversary "Lights of Wisdom" 3D Projection Mapping Display
This year, for the first time, there will be a 3D Projection Mapping Display to celebrate the 50th anniversary of FGS. The awe-inspiring laser lights will carve out beautiful scenes in an illuminated 3D space, and together with the BM fireworks show, will paint a stunning picture in the night sky. For 29 consecutive days of the new year, they will illuminate your soul, filling your life with wisdom and light.
Lantern Appreciation
The FGS Festival of Light and Peace unites people all around the world, Sangha members and lay devotees alike, in using traditional lanterns to make light offerings for peace. As they are lit, they allow guests to calm their minds and gain serenity.
In celebrating the new year at FGS, you will be able to make a light offering as well as appreciate the beautiful lanterns; just as the ocean of light is boundless, so is the peace and bliss of the Dharma. Each year, people joyfully bring their spouses and children to FGS to pay homage and make light offerings to ward off disasters and welcome blessings and good fortune in the new year. Offering these prayers for one’s family has now become an indispensable tradition of the lunar new year.
On the entrance to Fo Guang Boulevard during the time of the Festival of Light and Peace, there will be a three-meter tall lantern in the form of a chicken that symbolize the “Rising Dawn of Success” theme of this year that greets the endless stream of guests upon arrival. The “Transforming Delusion into Enlightenment” lanterns near the Tea Pavilion were created by inmates from the Hsinchu, Changhua, Tainan, and Kaohsiung prisons. Further along the Fo Guang Boulevard, the “Peacock Spreading Its Tail” monitor screen lanterns at the Triple Gem Plaza will beckon you to come visit. On the winding trail, there are LED lanterns with auspicious greetings under the theme of “The World of Light.” Just a little further ahead, the “Auspicious Triple Gem” from FGS Dong Zen Temple in Malaysia symbolizes family harmony and joy. You will discover the “53 Activities of Virtuous Youth” along the Maple Fragrance Path, which represent the quest for virtuous knowledge in an illuminated world. Moreover, in the Artillery Flower Area, you will be able to experience “Lotus Flower Blossoming Under Every Step.” And finally, the “Three Acts of Goodness GO” represent Venerable Master’s hopes for FGS to propagate the Dharma through athletics in the future, allowing young people to more closely experience the Dharma in their daily lives and understand that Buddhism exists in the human world.
Activity Details
- The Buddha’s Light Shines Universally ~ FGS 50th Anniversary Celebration ~ 3D Projection Mapping Display + Fireworks Show + Three Acts of Goodness Wonderful Year Parade
- All lantern activities and performances – including “Rising Dawn of Success,” “Peacocking Spreading Its Tail,” “Transforming Delusion into Enlightenment,” “The World of Light,” “Auspicious Triple Gem,” “53 Activities of Virtuous Youth,” “Lotus Flowers Blossoming Under Every Step,” “Three Acts of Goodness GO” – will take place on Fo Guang Boulevard
- “Three Acts of Goodness GO” will feature Brazil FGS Ru Lai Temple’s soccer team, Pumen High School baseball team, Pu Men High School basketball team, FGS cheerleaders, and South African female team’s lantern show
- During the New Year Festival you can download the “Fo Guang GO” app and engage in AR games as well as collect points for prizes
- Fo Guang Boulevard New Year’s Market will have stalls that feature folk arts and crafts, traditional children’s toys, and food and beverages.
- We will celebrate the new year together, with folk arts and entertainment!
Purification through Arts and Culture
Spiritual interactions through arts and culture are able to purify minds across races and religions. At the founding of FGS, Venerable Master Hsing Yun immediately proclaimed the objective of “propagating Dharma through culture,” thus committing to make Buddhism humanistic, integrated in daily life, and cultured, so that the arts and culture may carry the propagation of Buddhism to people from all backgrounds.
Buddhist art highlights the majesty and dignity of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, as well as embodies its creator’s wish to convey the Dharma without words, allowing all those who admire it to enrich their lives, purify their minds, and enhance their characters.
The FGS New Year Festival of Light and Peace will showcase a variety of artistic exhibitions and performances, constituting a feast for the soul that should be delicately savoured. You will not spend an idle moment here; in fact, as a result of your visit, you may wish to remain at FGS forever!
Activity Details
- “To see the world in a flower, and the Tathagata in a leaf” Orchid Exhibition
- “Ocean of Wisdom”-Fo Guang Buddhist Canon Special Exhibition
- Special Exhibition of Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Literary Works
- Hebei Acrobatics New Year Public Performance
- Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou – Shandong Museum Sutra Canon Exhibition
- Buddha's Light in the Forbidden City – Exhibition of Buddhist Palace Art in the Ming and Qing Dynasties
- Third Sister Liu – Guangxi Traditional Opera
- “Fragrance of Flower and Ink” – Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s One-stroke Calligraphy and Flower Paintings
