Merit Making on Mother’s Day

Our family went to Wat Greensboro to Tum Boun or merit making for our mom on Mother’s Day. This is our 6th year visiting the temple on Mother’s Day.

My mom had 8 daughters, and Mother’s Day had been a special day for her. We brought flowers to the temple, some are store-bought and some are from my sister’s garden.

I prepared Kun 5, which is a worship plate of 5 pairs of candles and flowers for worshiping.

We offered Sungka Tarn, which is a Buddhist merit making ceremony for the deceased.  We donated daily necessity items to the monks and temple such as bath towels, tissues, toiletries, coffee, Ovaltine, waters, and other necessity items. Below the monks performed the ceremony of bungsakoun for our mom.

We made the offer.

Pouring water ceremony is Goud Nom Pra Maid Ta to mother earth so she can tell your passed loved one to come and receive the merit. This is the end of the ceremony, and the water is then poured outside.

Kathong is a new dog at the temple, he came to live at the temple as a small puppy. He was named Kathong because his owner gave him to the temple during Loy kathong of last year.

He is about 6 or 7 month old now.

I’ve mentioned in the past that our temple is raising money to build a new worship hall, kitchen and bathroom. The construction of the bathroom is in progress, but coming together slowly since we still lack the fund.  The kitchen and worship hall will be built at the same time after the bathroom is finished. This will take many years since the construction is funded by donation only.

It has been our tradition to bamboo shoot hunt on Mother’s Day and this year we weren’t sure if there were any left since the bamboo shoots came out a bit early due to the unseasonably warmer weather this year. Everyone was busy hunting and my niece found a few shoots.

My second sister decided to go inside the bush, and it’s a good thing that they are not wild or forest bamboo otherwise she would be pricked with bamboo thorns.

Lee found a few shoots also, but I think she likes to explore rather than bamboo shoot hunting.

And the persimmon crop at the temple looks promising this year.  I can’t wait till harvest time in the Fall.

All photos were taken with Canon T2i, and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, shooting at ISO3200 inside the temple so there’s some digital noise.