On this auspicious day, come to the Temple to give alms to monks, observe the Eight Precepts, practice renunciation, and meditate. Also participate in the candle ceremony walking around the temple clockwise three times holding a lighted candle, flowers, and incense.

Magha Puja day commemorates an important event in the life of the Buddha when some ten months after his enlightenment, 1,250 enlightened monks, from different places assembled before him without prior appointment to pay respect. When the monks were assembled, the Buddha delivered a sermon called the ‘Ovada Patimokkha’ in which he asked the monks ‘To abstain from all evil, To cultivate what is wholesome, and To purify the mind’. It is a summary of the rules for the Sangha, composed before the monastic rules for training had been established in detail.