Chapter V: Lunar Superstitions and Festivals (2)

In the _Sutta Nipâta_, a collection of seventy didactic poems belonging to the Pitakas, or sacred books of the southern Buddhists, Eight Precepts or Moral Commandments are enumerated. Five of these are binding on every Buddhist, whether mendicant or layman, but the remaining three are not obligatory for the laity. The precepts are: (1) not to destroy life; (2) not to commit theft; (3) not to tell lies; (4) not to drink intoxicating liquors; (5) not to indulge in unlawful sexual intercourse; (6) not to eat unseasonable food at night; (7) not to wear garlands or use perfumes; and (8) not to sleep on a raised couch.[478] These precepts are said to constitute the eight-fold fast, or _uposatha_, declared by the Buddha. Their special observance on the _uposatha_ day is inculcated, and to break any of them on that day is considered highly irreligious. Instead of observing lunar taboos, the Buddhists were to keep the _uposatha_ by a special fulfillment of the moral law, with clean garments and with clean minds; one of the many instances in which the founder of Buddhism gave a spiritual meaning to an earlier superstitious rite. That the _uposatha_, marked as it was by fasting, avoidance of sexual intercourse, and refraining from wearing wreaths and using perfumes, should have come to be regarded as a rest day seems to be only the natural result of its observance as a season of abstinence. The _uposatha_ is thus discovered among the earliest institutions of Buddhism; in its origin it could have owed nothing to Jewish or Christian influence; in its diffusion throughout southeastern Asia it appears to have remained unaffected by the influence of Islam. If these conclusions be accepted, the Buddhist Sabbath dates back, remotely, to taboos observed at changes of the moon.

Buddhism was early introduced into Ceylon. The Sabbath still observed there by the Sinhalese falls on the four _poya_ days of the month, the days of the changes of the moon.[479] Missionaries from Ceylon carried the new faith to Burma, at least as early as the fifth century A.D. According to an old traveller the “eighth day of the increasing moon, the fifteenth or full moon, the eighth of the decreasing moon, and the last day of the moon, are religiously observed by Birmans (_sic_) as sacred festivals. On these hebdomadal holidays no public business is transacted in the Rhoom: mercantile dealings are suspended; handicraft is forbidden; and the strictly pious take no sustenance between the rising and the setting of the sun; but the latter instance of self-denial is not very common, and, as I understood, is rarely practised, except in the metropolis, where the appearance of sanctity is sometimes assumed as a ladder by which the crafty attempt to climb to promotion.”[480] According to a more recent and sympathetic account there are “four _ubone_, or duty days, in every lunar month, on which all good Burmans are expected to go and worship at the pagodas. These are the eighth of the crescent, the full moon, the eighth of the waning, and the change, of which the second and the fourth are the more sacred. As the monks have nothing to do with looking after the spiritual state of the people, it is entirely a matter to be settled by one’s self whether any particular worship day is to be observed or not. If you conclude that strict religious observances are only necessary for your spiritual well-being on the day of the full moon, or at any rate that you may leave out the eighth of the crescent and waning moon, then the _ubone_ does not concern you at all, and you may proceed about your ordinary business without being considered a reprobate. The very devout may go to the pagoda on all the four sacred days of the month; but if you choose to omit one or several, or substitute an ordinary day for that provided by religious custom, there is no one to take you to task for it. Were a Burman never to go to the pagoda at all, or fail to do so for any considerable time, he would indeed soon get a very bad character among his neighbours, and might even be formally excommunicated by the _yahan_. There is, however, practically no constraint save the force of public opinion. But the duties of worship are so light, and so dependent in their details upon yourself, and there is so much amusement to be got out of a visit to the pagoda on an _ubone_, that few, even of the most worldly-minded, miss any great number of the appointed days, and a special festival is always carefully observed.... It must not, however, be supposed that all the people take this easy-going and frivolous view of duty days. Diligent seekers after _kutho_ behave very differently. They do not merely limit themselves to the customary forms of worship and offerings. They sleep little, or not at all, the night before; telling their beads instead, and reading good books, some of the discourses of the Buddha, or portions of the greater _zat_. All necessary business is transacted the day previous to the _ubone_, and neighbours are exhorted to observe the festival properly. After one simple dish in the morning, they eat nothing for the rest of the day; or perhaps on certain occasions do not break their fast till after midday, a custom very general on the first day of Lent. Instead of staying in the noisy _zayat_, where the assembled people are talking of light matters, laughing and diverting themselves, they retire to a _tazaung_ on the pagoda platform or to some place shaded by trees; there they finger the hundred and eight beads of their rosary, muttering, ‘All is transient, sorrowful, and vain; the Lord, the Law, the Assembly; the three precious things’; and meditate on the example of the Lord Buddha and the excellence of his Law. To vary the monotony of this performance, they go for an hour or two to one of the monasteries to talk with the prior or some learned brother, or perhaps to hear him read and expound one of the _jataka_, or birth-stories. So the duty day passes. By sunset most of the worshippers are making their way back to their homes; but a few zealous spirits remain all night in the _zayat_, and only return with daylight on the following morning. This simple round of celebration is repeated four times in every lunar month, with here and there a feast day of some particular shrine thrown in, when the only difference is that there is greater ceremony and a more or less large influx of strangers, according to the sanctity of the pagoda.”[481]

The Siamese Sabbath (_wan phra_) was also an institution introduced by Buddhist missionaries. An old writer describes it as follows: “Their Sunday, called by them _vampra_, is always the fourth day of the moon; in each month they have two great ones, at the new and full moon, and two less solemn, on the seventh and twenty-first. This day does not exempt them from labour, since only fishing is forbidden to them. Those who transgress this prohibition pay a fine and are thrown into prison, as having profaned the sanctity of the day.”[482] A later writer declares that hunting is also forbidden, and adds that on these days one cannot find fresh fish and meat in the shops.[483] In former times the temples were crowded with worshippers, who brought their offerings and listened to the hymns, prayers, and moral discourses addressed to them by the Buddhist priests.[484] But we are told that now a majority of the temples stand empty on the _wan phra_, and what worshippers there are consist invariably of women. Since the adoption of the solar calendar in 1889 the _wan phra_ has been superseded to a large extent for civil purposes by Sunday.[485] The Buddhist Sabbath is also found in Cambodia.[486]

In some districts of Tibet the monthly Buddhist festivals (_du-zang_) are four in number, following the successive phases of the moon. In other parts of the country only three festivals are celebrated—at new moon, first quarter, and full moon. On these days no animal food ought to be eaten and no animal killed; those who break this rule are threatened with severe punishment in a future existence. “To abstain from worldly occupations is, however, not enacted, and as the Buddhist laymen in the Himalaya and western Tibet are not very fond of passing the whole day in prayers and in the temples, these holy days are not particularly marked in the habits of the population.”[487] As elsewhere in Buddhist lands the new-moon and full-moon Sabbaths are of most importance, since on these occasions the _patimokkha_ is recited in the monasteries, accompanied by a public confession of sins.[488] However, in Tibet there appears never to have been much uniformity as to the times for the observance of the _uposatha_, the practice varying with different provinces and sects.[489] In Bhutan, where Buddhism was introduced by missionaries from Tibet, the eighth, fourteenth, twenty-fourth, and thirtieth of the month are said to be the holy days, while the Mongolians have the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, the three days being brought together perhaps because of the great distance which separates the monasteries from the temple.[490] Among the Kalmucks on the Volga, to the north of the Caspian, the _uposatha_ is generally observed thrice a month—the eighth day after new moon, the fifteenth, and the thirtieth.[491]

The _uposatha_ is not unknown among the Buddhists of China. The Chinese _Ts’ing-kwei_, or “Regulations of the Priesthood,” a Buddhist document, enumerates, among others, four festivals to be kept each month, at new moon and full moon, and on the eighth and twenty-third days. These are called _kin-ming sï-chai_, “the four feasts illustriously decreed”; they may be regarded as a variant of the _uposatha_.[492] Among non-Buddhists there is another custom of observing on the new and full moon of each month a ceremony, anciently in honour of the moon, but now particularly addressed to various deities, especially the gods of wealth. It was formerly the rule to sacrifice a bullock to the moon at this time. During the festival the courts of justice and _yaman_, or government residences, are closed. Offerings are made in the Confucian temples, and even the family gods receive their meed of worship. The householder on this day enjoys a better meal than usual, without, however, intermitting his ordinary occupations.[493] There is no reason to believe that this Chinese festival owes anything to contact with Buddhism. Its independent origin, in connection with an early cult of the moon and perhaps at a remote period with various lunar taboos, becomes, therefore, something more than a conjecture.

The Buddhist Sabbath penetrated to Japan. An old writer tells us that in Japan there are three monthly holidays connected with the moon, though now immovable feasts. “The first is called _isitatz_, and is the first day of each month. It deserves rather to be called a day of compliments and mutual civilities, than a church or Sunday.” The second holiday is on the fifteenth of each month, “being the day of the full moon. The gods of the country have a greater share in the visits the Japanese make on this day, than their friends and relations.” The third festival occurs on the twenty-eighth of each month, “being the day of the new moon, or the last day of the decreasing moon. Not near so much regard is had to this, than there is to either of the two former, and the Sintos [Shinto] temples are very little crowded on it. There is a greater concourse of people on this day at the Budsos [Buddhist] temples, it being one of the monthly holidays sacred to Amida.”[494]

Buddhism and Brahmanism, spreading beyond the confines of continental Asia, carried the custom of keeping lunar festivals into some parts of Indonesia. In Bali, where the _padanda_, or Brahmans, have preserved many features of the old Vedic religion, fasts and sacrifices are still obligatory on the householder at new moon and full moon.[495] In Kar Nicobar Buddhist influence from Burma is seen in the custom of observing a rest day on the seventh day of the moon, at full moon, and on the twenty-second day of the moon, but only during seven lunar months of the year.[496] The Nicobarese have given to this imported Buddhist Sabbath their native name _anoiila_, which is regularly applied to the rest days or holidays observed by them on various critical occasions.[497]

We pass now from the lunar festivals found in ancient and modern India and in those countries of southeastern Asia which have been long affected by the cultural influence of India to similar observances among peoples of archaic civilization. The ancient Iranians appear to have celebrated four lunar days in each month, for the oldest part of the Avesta contains the following passage: “I dedicate, I perform (the sacrifice) for the month (gods), the time-divisions of Asa, for the between-moon [_i.e._, the new moon], ... for the full moon, and for the intervening seventh(s),” in other words, for the first, eighth, fifteenth, and twenty-third days, which were all dedicated to Ahura Mazda.[498] The choice of these four lunar days was due to the division of the Avesta thirty-day month into two unequal parts, containing fourteen and sixteen days, respectively, and to the further subdivision of each part so as to form two groups of seven days and two of eight days. This arrangement had the practical advantage of permitting a quadripartite division of the month without a remainder. There is no evidence that the four groups formed civil weeks, or that the first day of each group was observed as a Sabbath.[499]

Although the Egyptians had abandoned the old lunar year and lunar month, perhaps as early as the beginning of the fourth millenium B.C., the people continued for many centuries to observe as festivals the first and fifteenth days of the month. In the earlier calendar these would have coincided with the two significant epochs of the lunation, namely, new moon and full moon. The “monthly feasts” and the “half-monthly feasts” are mentioned in the very ancient texts preserved in the pyramids at Sakkara of kings of the Sixth Dynasty.[500] They are referred to in the _Book of the Dead_, in the directions requiring special chapters of that work to be recited on the first day of the month, apparently when it coincides with new moon, and on the last day of the sixth month of the Egyptian year, when that day coincides with the full moon.[501] That they were practised under the Twelfth Dynasty appears clearly from the well-known inscription of Khnumhotep II, cut on the walls of the chapel chamber in his tomb at Benihasan. Khnumhotep II, a local ruler of the sixteenth nome in Upper Egypt, sets forth in this inscription a somewhat vainglorious account of his buildings and his piety. Among other things he says, “I endowed him [the mortuary priest] with fields and peasants; I commanded the mortuary offering of bread, beer, oxen, and geese, at every feast of the necropolis: at the feast of the first of the year, of New Year’s Day, of the great year, of the little year, of the last of the year, the great feast, at the great Rekeh, at the little Rekeh, at the feast of the five intercalary days, at —— ——, at the twelve monthly feasts, at the twelve mid-monthly feasts; every feast of the happy living, and of the dead.”[502] Again, there is an explicit reference to new-moon festivals under the Thirteenth Dynasty in a celebrated inscription placed by Thothmes III (1501-1447 B.C.) on the walls of the great temple of Amon at Karnak. This inscription describes the numerous campaigns made by the Egyptian king in Syria. The account of the battle of Megiddo opens as follows: “Year 23, first (month) of the third season (ninth month), on the twenty-first day, the day of the feast of the new moon, corresponding to the royal coronation, early in the morning, behold, command was given to the entire army to move.”[503] The significance of this lunar festival is further set forth in the inscriptions on the ceiling of the pronaos of the temple of Dendera, where the phases of the moon are portrayed together with other astronomical matters. The thirty days of the month are here given their eponymic names and are arranged in two divisions, according as they belong to the decreasing or to the increasing moon. Four lunar days are brought into special prominence as associated with the chief phases of the moon, viz., 1st lunar day = “festival of new moon”; 7th lunar day = “festival of the first quarter”; 15th lunar day = “festival of the fifteenth,” and 23d lunar day = “festival of the third quarter.” In this inscription full moon on the fifteenth of the lunar month, repeatedly mentioned in poetical terms as “the eye of the moon,” seems to have been regarded as the most significant of the lunar phases.[504] The oldest traces of this important list of lunar days belong to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties; the latest date from Ptolemaic and Roman times.[505] The evidence, then, fully warrants the conclusion that from the earliest period the Egyptians included the celebrations at new moon and full moon among the most important of their religious ceremonies.[506] In late classical times the lunar festivals appear to have been consecrated to Osiris, whose identification with the moon is reasonably certain.[507] But to what extent, if any, they were accompanied by the imposition of taboos remains problematical.

The evidence for lunar rites among the Greeks must be pieced together from scattered references in the classical writers. The day of the visible new moon (νουμηνία), marking the beginning of the lunar month, appears to have been ceremonially observed throughout the Greek world.[508] The Noumenia was particularly associated with Apollo and also with Hera, a goddess who seems to have had an ancient rôle as a moon deity. The antiquity of the Noumenia may be judged from the references to it in the _Odyssey_, where no other general festival than that of Apollo is mentioned. In the island of Ithaca a feast of Apollo on the new-moon day was in progress at the time of the trial of Odysseus’s bow. Is it not the holy day of Apollo, ask the suitors? Who on such a day could stretch the bow?[509] The first of the month is holy, declares Hesiod.[510] In Athens, and doubtless in other Greek cities, the Noumenia continued to be in historic times a day of repose, when all public activities, except of a religious character, were intermitted.[511] Private business, however, was not suspended on the Noumenia; the markets, especially those for the purchase of slaves, were then particularly frequented; the time was regarded as the most favourable for marriage; and in the homes there was much feasting and good cheer.[512] The Dichomenia (διχομηνία), or full-moon day, appears also to have been a regular monthly festival in Greece, though of lesser importance than the Noumenia.[513]

The Roman month was originally lunar, and at all periods was divided by the real or imaginary phases of the moon. The Kalends, or day of the visible new moon, were sacred to Juno, a goddess, who, like the Greek Hera, was particularly associated with the moon.[514] On the Kalends one of the pontiffs performed a sacrifice, with the assistance of the _rex sacrorum_.[515] Pious Romans also celebrated the new-moon day with offerings and prayers to the family gods.[516] The Ides, or day of the full moon, were consecrated to Jupiter, but the Nones, which may originally have marked the moon’s first quarter, were not sacred to any deity.[517] The Kalends of March, June, and October, the Nones of July, and the Ides of all the months were numbered among the _feriæ publicæ_, or sacred festivals attended by a compulsory remission of labour, of the Roman state religion.[518]

The taboos which at Rome invested the lunar phases appear to have lingered into the historic age under yet another guise. Among the unlucky days (_dies religiosi_[519]) of the Roman calendar were those following the Kalends, Nones, and Ides. The thirty-six _dies postriduani_ were regarded as unsuitable for many purposes, both public and private: for battles, levies, sacred rites, journeys, and marriages.[520] We are told that they owed their unlucky quality to a pronouncement of the Senate and pontiffs, in consequence of the grave defeat of the Allia on the 18th of Quinctilis (July). According to the story preserved by Gellius one of the senators publicly declared that on the day following the Ides the Roman commander had performed sacred rites with a view to engaging the Gauls, only to experience an overwhelming defeat two days later. Many other senators called to mind that on sundry occasions, when sacrifices on the day following the Kalends, Nones, or Ides had been performed to secure the favour of the gods in battle, not victory but disaster followed. In consequence these days were declared unfit for public sacrifices.[521] It is obvious that this traditional explanation of the _dies postriduani_ must be far from the real truth. Unlucky days are not generated in such an artificial fashion or on so wholesale a scale. We may with some confidence regard the prohibitions accompanying these days as real survivals of primitive taboos at new moon, first quarter, and full moon, their assumed historic significance being only the conscious fiction of a later and more sophisticated age.[522]

The scanty records on which we must rely for our knowledge of the heathen inhabitants of central and northern Europe, before they came into contact with Rome and Christianity, furnish no certain evidence that they celebrated lunar festivals. According to Strabo the Celtiberians and their neighbours to the north sacrificed every full moon to a nameless god, the ceremony taking place at night and being accompanied by dancing.[523] Again, Tacitus, who mentions the custom of the Germans of holding their assemblies on “fixed days” (_certi dies_), either at the new moon or the full moon, also refers to the _certi dies_ on which they think it lawful to propitiate Mercury, their chief god, with human sacrifices.[524] Such statements may mean much or little. Having traced lunar festivals among the Aryans of India, the Iranians, the Greeks, and the Romans, it might reasonably be supposed that the Celts and Germans were also familiar with them.

But the festive observance of the two great epochs of the lunation was by no means confined in antiquity to Indo-Germanic peoples. The Chinese and Egyptian festivals at new moon and full moon reach back into the past as far as the historical eye can follow them; while in Semitic lands, as we shall learn, the same rites occupied a most conspicuous place in the religious calendar. Not unjust was the remark of Isidore of Seville, a famous scholar of the Middle Ages, that the ancients, just as the Hebrews, were accustomed to celebrate the beginnings of all the months—_apud veteres enim omnium mensium principia colebantur, sicut et apud Hebræos_.[525]