In recent days, streets, residential areas and pagodas across Hue have been decorated with lanterns and lotus symbols to celebrate Vesak, the most important Buddhist festival commemorating the birth of Buddha. More than 300 pagodas in the city centre, along with temples and monasteries across Hue’s 40 wards and communes, have set up ceremonial spaces and colourful displays for the occasion.

Huynh Van Khang, a Buddhist follower in Thuy Xuan ward, said Vesak is not only a religious celebration but also a time for people to cultivate compassion and pray for peace and prosperity.

“During Vesak, Buddhists are encouraged to practice compassion and kindness. Besides making offerings at pagodas, many Buddhist groups also organise charitable activities to support disadvantaged families through gifts and decorations so they can join the celebrations,” he told VOV.

Many pagodas and Buddhist followers in Hue are organising charity programmes to support poor households, elderly people living alone and patients facing difficult circumstances.

Nun Lien Tri, deputy head of the Charity and Social Affairs Committee of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Hue, said the organisation has distributed more than 1,000 gift packages to low-income families and cancer patients receiving treatment at Hue Central Hospital during this year’s Vesak celebrations.

The Buddhist organisation has also supported families in mountainous and remote areas.

“Buddhism promotes compassion and relieving suffering. Charity work is a way to spread kindness and help people live more peacefully and happily. The gifts may not be large in value, but they represent compassion from one person to another,” she stressed.

In addition to citywide programmes organised by the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Hue, local pagodas and monasteries are holding their own charitable activities to support communities in the spirit of compassion and humanity.

This year’s Vesak celebrations also include a variety of cultural and spiritual events such as the lighting of seven lotus-shaped lanterns on the Huong River, Buddhist cultural exhibitions, vegetarian food festivals, flower-car processions, Buddha bathing rituals and the main Vesak ceremony at Tu Dam Pagoda on the full moon day of the fourth lunar month.

Most Venerable Thich Khe Chon, head of the Executive Board of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Hue, said Vesak is an opportunity for monks, nuns and Buddhist followers to strengthen solidarity, promote compassion and spread humanitarian values within society.

“The teachings of the Buddha from thousands of years ago still resonate today. Every Vesak season reminds us to practice kindness, compassion and spiritual values in our daily lives,” he told VOV.

Buddha’s birthday reverently celebrated in Dak Lak

VOV.VN - In the joyful spirit of Vesak 2026, many pagodas and monasteries across Dak Lak province are holding a range of meaningful cultural, spiritual, and social welfare activities, drawing a large number of local residents and Buddhist followers.