Prabarana Purnima, the second largest festival of the Buddhists, was celebrated in the city as elsewhere in the district on Wednesday with traditional enthusiasm and due solemnity.
The festival is also known as Ashvini Purnima that marks conclusion of the three months long seclusion of the monks inside their monasteries for self edification and atonement of their defilement.
The Purnima follows a month-long preaching of sermons by the Buddhist monks for the welfare of every being and whole humankind through yellow robes offering ceremony that begins on Wednesday.
According to the legend, Buddha once clipped some strands of hair from his head and said that if he were qualified to attain supreme wisdom and enlightenment, the hairs would not fall down but go up instead, which they did.
To mark this event, the Buddhists from all monasteries sent up lighted balloons made of coloured paper and set them free to flow towards the sky in the evening as a symbol of lighting up the sky which was the chief attraction of the festival.
The Purnima was celebrated in all monasteries, respective offices of the religious organizations and educational institutions through daylong programmes.
The day鈥檚 programmes heralded with hoisting of the national and religious flags atop of all monasteries in the dawn and chanting of the sacred verses from the Tripitaka.
Mass prayers, blood donation, sangadana, discussions, panchashila and pradip puja were other highlights of the programmes.
In the port city, the main religious congregations was held at Nandankanan Buddhist temple, Katalganj Nabapandit Vihar, Purnachar International Buddhists Monastery at Devpahar, Mugholtuli Shakkyamuni Swashan Vihar at Agrabad, Sarbajanin (universal) Bouddha Vihar at Momin road and Biswamoitry Buddha Vihar at Agrabad.
To mark the day, local dailies brought out some articles while Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television aired special programmes highlighting the importance of the festival.
