Since the gate of Wat Ananda opened at 6am, there has been a steady stream of devotees who came to offer prayers on this important day for many Buddhists. Vesak Day marks the Birth, Enlightenment and Final Nirvana of Lord Buddha some 2,500 years ago. During last year's Vesak, we started the Community Service project to help some needy elderly in the neighbourhood and it has since become a quarterly community service project undertaken by the Wat Ananda Youth (WAY). This year's Vesak could be hailed as another milestone for WAY. Since the Dhamma Hall was renovated last Nov, we now have a conducive place to hold Dhamma Talks. We were very fortunate to invite Bro Kweh Soon Han and Sis Sylvia Bay to share on "Significance of Vesak", "Power of Chant" and "Fundamental Teachings of the Buddha". Listening to Dhamma talks is considered as one of the meritorious deeds for Buddhists to engage in and it was heartening to see familiar and new faces who came to attend at least one of the talks on Vesak Day itself.

As we celebrated and rejoiced during this important occasion, we were also reminded of one of the unfortunate disasters that struck recently. Many of the Dhamma brothers and sisters in Myanmar were not as fortunate. They have to struggle to keep themselves alive, not knowing if they would be able to sustain for another day. Wat Ananda and WAY decided to play our little part to help the Dhamma brothers and sisters in Myanmar by raising some funds to support the relief efforts led by the Firefly Mission (a Buddhist humanitarian group which focuses a large part of its effort in Myanmar). At the end of the Dhamma talks, we also dedicated all the merits which we have accumulated by listening to the talks to all who had passed on during the disasters in China and Myanmar.