The Parents’ Day Celebration event, organised by the Young Adult Division (YAD), was held on 12 June in the Main Shrine for all parents present on that day. The event saw a variety of items that were both new and repeated, from the previous years.
The highlight of the event was the feet-washing ceremony. Seven families were invited to the front of the shrine, and the audience watched on as the children bowed over to wash the aged feet of their parents. This served to remind the children of how their parents had worked so hard for the family, and how they rarely express gratitude to their parents. Some parents noted that it is the first time their children had done anything like that, while others quipped that although they had experienced something like this before, they were still as touched. Besides this, the children also offered tea to their parents, together with hand-made cards and the sutras copied by them.
Significantly, these children spent time in the morning copying sutras for their parents, to dedicate merits to them. Through some sharing of thoughts from both children and parents, everyone present was reminded of the sacrifices that parents make in order to bring up a child. Also, our parents always mean well despite the various parenting styles and as such, we have to always be grateful to them.
Most present were left teary-eyed after songs by Vocalight; 5 members took turns and did their rendition of a medley, consisting of "感念母恩" ( Gratitude for mother’s kindness ), "阿嬷的话" ( Grandmother’s word ) and "真的爱你" ( Really love you ). These songs speak of how our parents never gave up on us despite all of our failures, how we can vow to practise Buddhism diligently as a form of gratitude to our parents and how even grandparents play an important part in our upbringing.
Of course, we did not forget how the Venerables had also played a part in our growth. After singing “天下的爸妈都是一样的 ” (All the father and mother are the same), various youths led by YAD President Jessica Lim presented hand-made batik paintings to all Venerables present. These batik-paintings were drawn and coloured by YADs who attended the Youth Camp that took place the week before. The event ended on a warm note where all participating children got to dine with their parents at the Dining Hall.
Our parents have dedicated their lives to us selflessly. How shall we repay them during this lifetime? We hope that through this event, everyone will be reminded to give thanks regularly and especially to our parents, whom we may regularly fail to pay attention to.
