Bodhi Day (Rohatsu) · Rohatsu

Culture of origin: Buddhist · Cultural

Holiday sources: Buddhism

Bodhi Day remembers the day the Buddha attained enlightenment, seated under a sacred fig, the Bodhi tree. In Japanese Zen it is Rohatsu, "the eighth of the twelfth month", kept on 8 December since the westernisation of the Meiji era; it is often preceded by an intensive meditation retreat (sesshin), and monks and lay followers sit through the night before it. Others mark it with meditation, study, chanting and acts of kindness.