Māgha Pūjā (also written as Makha Bucha Day) is a Buddhist festival celebrated on the full moon day of the third lunar month^[4] in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka and on the full moon day of Tabaung in Myanmar. It is the second most important Buddhist festival after Vesak; it celebrates a gathering that was held between the Buddha and 1,250 of his first disciples, which, according to tradition, preceded the custom of periodic recitation of discipline by monks. On the day, Buddhists celebrate the creation of an ideal and exemplary community, which is why it is sometimes called Saṅgha Day, the Saṅgha referring to the Buddhist community, and for some Buddhist schools this is specifically the monastic community.^[5][1] In Thailand, the Pāli term Māgha-pūraṇamī is also used for the celebration, meaning 'to honor on the full moon of the third lunar month'.^[6] Finally, some authors referred to the day as the Buddhist All Saints Day.^[7][8]

In pre-modern times, Māgha Pūjā has been celebrated by some Southeast Asian communities. But it became widely popular in the modern period, when it was instituted in Thailand by King Rama IV in the mid-19th century. From Thailand, it spread to other South and Southeast Asian countries. Presently, it is a public holiday in some of these countries. It is an occasion when Buddhists go to the temple to perform merit-making activities, such as alms giving, meditation and listening to teachings. It has been proposed in Thailand as a more spiritual alternative to the celebration of Valentine's Day.

Māgha is derived from the name of the third month in the traditional Indian lunar calendar, on which the celebration is held.^[6] It is also the name of a star, which during this period is close to the full moon.^[9] Māgha Pūjā is held on the full moon day. In a leap year, the celebration will be postponed to the full moon day of the fourth lunar month.^[6]

Māgha Pūjā day marks an event occurring at the Veḷuvana [th] grove, near Rājagaha (present Rajgir) in northern India,^[1][10] ten months after the enlightenment of the Buddha. The traditional story goes that a meeting was held in the afternoon, that had four characteristics, known as the cāturaṅgasannipāta [th]:^[11]

1. 1,250 disciples came to see the Buddha that evening without being summoned;^[1] These were mostly pupils from the Buddha's recently converted disciples, such as the three Kassapa brothers [th], and the monks Sāriputta and Mogallāna.^[12]
2. All of them were Arahants, enlightened disciples;^[4]
3. All had been ordained by the Buddha himself, and therefore were his direct spiritual descendants;^[4][13]
4. It was the full-moon day of the third lunar month.^[4]

Because of these four factors, Māgha Pūjā is also known as the Fourfold Assembly Day. On this occasion, the Buddha taught those arahants a summary of Buddhism, called the Ovādapātimokkha.^[1] In these, three principles were given:

"The non-doing of evil / the full performance of what is wholesome / the total purification of the mind."^[14][15]

This is followed by a formulation of Buddhist ideals:^[16]

"Patience (and) forbearance are the highest austerity. The awakened ones say nibbāna is the highest. One is certainly not a wanderer if one injures others; one is not an ascetic if one harms another."^[17]

Finally, the last stanza is about the path of religious practice:^[16]

"Not abusing, not injuring, and restraint under the rules of discipline, and knowing moderation in eating, and secluded lodgings, and exertion in respect of higher thought, this is the teaching of the awakened ones."^[17]

According to the traditional Pāli commentaries, the Buddha continued to teach this summary for a period of twenty years, after which the custom was replaced by the recitation of the monastic code of discipline by the Saṅgha themselves.^[18] On Māgha Pūjā today, Buddhists celebrate the creation of an ideal and exemplary community.^[1]

Māgha Pūjā is also the day that the Buddha is believed to have announced in Vesālī that he would die (parinibbāna) in three months, and after the announcement a supernatural earthquake followed.^[19] Moreover, In Sri Lanka, it is considered the day that the Buddha appointed his two main disciples, the monks Sāriputta and Moggallāna.^[20][21] Apart from the religious meaning, Māgha Pūjā also reflects the Southeast Asian agricultural year, as it is celebrated after the harvest.^[14]

Little is known on how traditional Buddhist societies celebrated this event in pre-modern times, but Māgha Pūjā was recognized and celebrated in Lan Na, Lan Xang and Northeastern Thailand. Practices of worship probably varied a lot.^[22] The first known instance in modern times was during the reign of the Thai king Rama IV (1804–68) who instituted it as a ceremony in 1851.^[23] He reasoned that the Māgha Pūjā "... was an important gathering, a miracle in Buddhism. Wise and knowledgeable people have therefore used this opportunity to honour the Buddha and the 1,250 arahants, which is a foundation of faith and a sense of urgency".^[24] He first held it in Temple of the Emerald Buddha, in the palace only. In the evening, 31 monks from the temples Wat Bowonniwet Vihara and Wat Ratchapradit would recite the Ovādapātimokkha, lit lanterns around the ubosot (ordination hall), and give a sermon about the same Ovādapātimokkha in the Pāli and Thai languages. The King or his representative would join the yearly ceremony.^[25] A recitation text used for this occasion is attributed to Rama IV.^[9] As part of an enduring effort to centralize and regularize Thai Buddhism, Rama IV's successor Rama V (1853–1910) expanded the practice and organized it as a national celebration in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.^[26] In 1913, he officially established it as a public holiday,^[27] as he started to organize the ceremonies in other places than the palace.^[24] By 1937, the ceremony was widely held and observed in Thailand, but by 1957, it had fallen out of usage. Supreme Patriarch-to-be Plod Kittisobhano [th] helped to revive it.^[28] From Thailand, the practice spread to neighboring countries which have a majority of Theravāda Buddhists.^[29]

Māgha Pūjā is a day that laypeople make merit.^{[note 1]} This is usually done with a motivation to improve oneself in the cycle of existence.^[35] Monastics and lay devotees will hold processions, light candles, attending preaching and making offerings of food, as well as meditating and Buddhist chants. Also, devotees will sometimes release animals from captivity.^[36] Moreover, devotees uphold and reflect on the five Buddhist moral precepts on this day, which includes avoiding intoxicants.^[37] Māgha Pūjā is celebrated most extensively in Thailand,^[38] but it is a national holiday in most Southeast Asian countries,^[39] such as Laos and Myanmar.^[40]

• Visakha Puja
• Asalha Puja
• Chotrul Duchen, a festival celebrated in Tibet as an Uposatha day and falls on around the same day as Māgha Pūjā
• First Full Moon Festival, a festival celebrated in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam as an Uposatha day and to mark the end of the Lunar New Year, falling on or around the same day as Māgha Pūjā
  • Lantern Festival, in China and Taiwan
  • Daeboreum, in Korea
  • Koshōgatsu, in Japan
  • Tết Nguyên tiêu, in Vietnam