Poya is the name given to the Lunar monthly

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

holiday of

Uposatha The Uposatha ( sa, Upavasatha) is a Buddhist day of observance, in existence from the Buddha's time (600 BCE), and still being kept today by Buddhist practitioners. The Buddha taught that the Uposatha day is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, where it is a civil and bank holiday. Full moon day is normally considered as the poya day in every month.

Poya

A Poya occurs every

full moon The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180°). This mea ...

."Sri Lanka Bank Holidays, Public Holidays & Full Moon Poya Days"
(Online Calendar for years 2003–2011), Ministry of Public Administration and home Affairs, Independence Square, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka. Uposatha is important to Buddhists all around the world, who have adopted the

lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, t ...

for their religious observances. Owing to the moon's fullness of size as well as its effulgence, the full moon day is treated as the most auspicious of the four

lunar phase Concerning the lunar month of ~29.53 days as viewed from Earth, the lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion, which can be expressed quantitatively using areas or angles, or described qualitatively using the t ...

s occurring once every lunar month (29.5 days) and thus marked by a holiday.A.G.S. Kariyawasam
"Buddhist Ceremonies and Rituals of Sri Lanka"
(Ch. 3), The Wheel Publication No. 402/404 (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1995). Access to Insight, 1 March 2011 Every full moon day is known as a ''Poya'' in the

Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also s ...

; this is when a practicing Sri Lankan Buddhist visits a temple for religious observances. There are 13 or 14 ''Poyas'' per year.For a standard listing of the 13, se
The Significance of Poya
For an example of the less common 14 full moon days in one year, se
the 2009 calendar
of "Sri Lanka Bank Holidays, Public Holidays & Full Moon Poya Days" The term ''poya'' is derived from the

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

word ''

uposatha The Uposatha ( sa, Upavasatha) is a Buddhist day of observance, in existence from the Buddha's time (600 BCE), and still being kept today by Buddhist practitioners. The Buddha taught that the Uposatha day is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind ...

'' (from ''upa'' + ''vas'' "to fast"), primarily signifying "fast day". Generally shops and businesses are closed on Poya days, and the sale of

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

and

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

is forbidden. The Poya Day in each month generally falls on the Gregorian date of the full moon but occasionally it falls a day on either side. The designated Poya Day is based on the phase of the moon at the Madhyahana time of day (the variant of Madhyahana which only covers two ghatikas). If a month has two Poya days, the name of the second one will be preceded by "Adhi" ("extra" in Sinhala) as in "Adhi Vesak", "Adhi Poson", etc.

Notes

{{Reflist Buddhist holidays Observances held on the full moon Lunar observation January observances February observances March observances April observances May observances September observances October observances November observances December observances Observances on non-Gregorian calendars Public holidays in Sri Lanka

Poya

See also

Notes