Fixed date festivals (solar calendar):

• Parinirvana Day 15 February
• Triratna Sangha Day 6 April (the anniversary of the founding of the FWBO in 1967)
• Triratna Order Day 7 April (the anniversary of the founding of the WBO in 1968)
• The Buddha's birthday 8 April
• Sangharakshita's birthday 26 August (b. 1925)

The lunar calendar festivals (see PDF) are calculated according to the first full moon (in the UK) of May, July, and November. Padmasambhava Day is calculated according to the tenth day of the lunar month starting in September. CE years are given as there is no general agreement between the different traditions on the counting of Buddhist years, but in 1957 the 2500th Buddha Jayanti was celebrated internationally and we therefore calculate the Buddhist year by adding 543 to the CE year.

There may be some variation from (and between) Indian, Burmese, Sri Lankan, and Tibetan (etc) festival dates, because their calendars vary and some are not fixed more than a couple of years in advance, and because the full moon sometimes occurs in Asia the day after the UK because of the time difference. (For example, in 2002 the lunar month of Vaishakha fell in April in India, but in Burma it was in May.) Bhante therefore decided that we should always simply choose the first full moon of the relevant (western) month. This will occasionally conflict (e.g. in 2026) with the supposed statement in the scriptures that there were two lunar months between the Buddha's Enlightenment (Buddha Day) and his first teaching (Dharma or Dharmachakra Day) although if anyone knows where this is actually stated we would be interested to know.

Compiled by Shantavira, D.F.Astrol.S