m. to 10 p.m. In Theravada countries, a daily ritual, called the Buddha puja, calls for monks to place offerings of food, drink, incense, and/or flowers on the altar before a Buddha image, accompanied by a brief recitation. In Mahayana countries, some temples participate in a similar ritual (Hardy).
The weekly Observance Day rituals at the Theravada monastery are opportunities for both laity and monks to quicken faith, discipline, and understanding, and make and share merit. On these days, twice each month, the monks change and reaffirm the code of discipline. On all of these days, they administer the Eight Precepts to the gathered laity, the laity repeating them after the monks and offer a sermon on the Dharma. The monks pour water to transfer merit to the laity and the laity pour water to share this merit with their ancestors (Lester 920). Other rites of passage are special rituals to mark, protect, and bless the occasions of major life transitions such as birthdays, puberty, marriage, death and new house blessing rites. It is traditional to mark these events with a ceremony involving samanas – a monastic term for ordained monks and nuns. .
In a ceremony for a birth, marriage, or a new house, a shrine is set up and offerings are made to the shrine, and the Sangha (community of ordained monks) are invited to a meal. The participants for the ceremony would request the Three Refuges and Five Precepts which indicate their commitment to the standards of conduct by which they can order their lives, as well as an auspicious way to start a new life, a partnership in marriage, or setting up a new home. There are also birth and puberty rituals which are observed according to local tradition. These rituals are often connected with indigenous traditions of worshiping the gods and spirits with little specific Buddhist perspective. For example, in Japan, a baby is presented to the Kami (gods) at the local Shinto shrine thirty days after birth, and the coming of age ritual on January 15 is a colorful and joyous Shinto festival for young people who have turned twenty (Ludwig 161).
