Page 19 - Wesak as a Public Holiday and Its Social Psychological Significance

Wesak as a Public Holiday and Its Social Psychological Significance

1933. Regardless of whether it was 1926
or 1933, it was about this period that the
idea of making Wesak a public holiday
was mooted.

It is also likely that he was merely
proposing the idea but not vigorously
pushing for it, hence the matter was not
pursued further. The events after WWII
revealed that the effort to get Wesak
declared as a public holiday was headed
mainly by Mahayana Buddhists, an
indication that their effort and support
was needed as they were the majority,
compared to the Theravada Buddhists in
the country. (In 1947, the Singapore
Buddhist Association – a Sri Lankan
Buddhist association, made similar effort
to get Wesak declared as a public
holiday, but failed. This could be
because it was a small ethnic group)

However, this story is of great
s i g n i fi c a n c e , b e c a u s e Ve n . K .
Gunaratana came from Sri Lanka, which
already had Wesak as a public holiday as
early as1885. Hence, this story may be Fig 8：A statue of Ven. Migettuwatte
traced back to the recent history of Sri Gunananda erected by Buddhist devotees.
Lanka.

In its recent history, the British Gampola debate and the 1873 Panadura
colonised the coastal area of Sri Lanka debate.
since 1796, and by 1815, ruled the whole
island via the Kandy Convention. Under The 1873 Panadura debate was a
British rule, evangelists from the West crucial one. At that time a Rev. David de
flocked to the island, built schools and Silva openly radiculed Buddhism in a
churches, and resorted to all sorts of Methodist church in Panadura. Then
unethical means to gain converts, Ven. Migettuwatte Gunananda (1823-
including condemning, insulting, and 1890), (Fig. 8), responded by
ridiculing Buddhism. challenging him for a debate. The result
of the debate was that the Buddhists won
In response, some Buddhist hands down. In jubilation, Buddhists
monks challenged the evangelists for paraded the Ven. Migettuwatte
debates. This resulted in three Buddhist- Gunananda from the venue of the debate
Christian debates (five if the written to the railway station that took him back
debates were also included). There to Colombo. Many other celebrations
were the 1866 Udanvita debate, the 1871 were held in temples in Sri Lanka.

Chapter 2: The Sri Lankan Connection Page18