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UN, PM’s Office and Gangaramaya Temple mark Vesak in joint effort
View(s):The United Nations will be taking part in this year’s Vesak celebrations in Sri Lanka by tying up with the National Vesak Festival organised jointly by the Gangaramaya Temple and the Prime Minister’s Office.
The festival which began yesterday will continue until May 25 at the Gangaramaya Temple, Temple Trees, and nearby locations around the Beira Lake. The UN’s Colombo office will have a stall at the location, where staff will educate the public regarding the recognition given to Vesak by the UN. This will include briefing the public regarding the UN’s historic resolution on Vesak, the Secretary General’s Message to mark the 2016 Vesak Day and other details that note the importance given internationally by the UN to the Buddhist religious festival.
This year’s Vesak commemoration is of historic significance to the UN, as it has now been declared as an ‘optional holiday’ for the first time under UN Resolution 69/250.
It was Sri Lanka’s Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, who in 1998 took the initiative to spearhead an effort to gain international recognition for Vesak. Under his guidance, Sri Lankan managed to take up the initiative with the active participation of not only other Buddhist States but all Member States of the United Nations
As a culmination of these efforts, in 1999, the UN General Assembly, by its Resolution 54/115, recognised the International Day of Vesak to acknowledge the contribution that Buddhism, one of the oldest religions in the world, has made for over two and a half millennia and continues to make to the spirituality of humanity.