Tuesday - a red letter day

Tuesday will be a day of great significance. After many years, Vesak full moon Poya and the May Day fall on the same day. Hence, Tuesday will be an equally important day for millions of Buddhists as well as workers across the globe.

The Buddhist calendar begins with the month of Vesak. On Vesak Poya Day, Buddhists all over the world, mark the triple anniversary of Sakyamuni Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha.

Buddhists all over the world consider it a triple anniversary as the Buddha was born, attained supreme enlightenment at the age of 35 and after a successful ministry of 45 years attained Parinirvana or passed away on a Vesak full moon Poya Day.

Apart from this, as Sri Lankans, we have another significance. It was also on a Vesak full moon Poya Day, that the Buddha made his last of the three visits to the Indian ocean island. In the eighth year of his enlightenment, the Buddha made his third and final visit to Sri Lanka.

The month of Vesak is the holiest period in the Buddhist calendar. According to Indian Mahayana Buddhist traditions, the holiday is known by its Sanskrit equivalent, Vaisakha. The word Vesak itself is the Sinhala word for the Pali variation, "Visakha". Visakha/Vaisakha is the name of the second month of the Indian calendar.

The significance of Vesak lies with the Buddha and his universal peace message to mankind. As we recall the Buddha and his Enlightenment, we are immediately reminded of the unique and most profound knowledge and insight which arose in him on the night of his Enlightenment. This coincided with three important events which took place, corresponding to the three watches or periods of the night.

Wisdom in the Buddhist context, is the realisation of the fundamental truths of life, mainly the Four Noble Truths. The understanding of the Four Noble Truths provide us with a proper sense of purpose and direction in life. They form the basis of problem-solving.

The message given to this world by the Buddha still stands unaffected by time and the expansion of knowledge as when they were first enunciated. No matter to what heights increased scientific knowledge can extend modern man's mental horizon, there is room for the acceptance and assimilation for further discovery within the framework of the teachings of the Buddha.

The Government decided to advance May Day celebrations by a day so that the Vesak festivities could be celebrated on a grand scale. Hence, the working class of Sri Lanka would celebrate 2007 May Day tomorrow.

In the United States, May Day is commonly celebrated as a commemoration of the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, which occurred on May 4, but was the culmination of labour unrest which began on May 1.

The date consequently became established as an anarchist and socialist holiday during the 20th century, and in these circles it is often known as International Workers' Day or Labour Day. In this context, May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the working class and labour movement.

But it Sri Lanka, the May Day has gradually turned out to be more of a political nature on which most parties try to inject their party vision, rather than making a genuine effort to look into the grievances of the working class.

Workers' interests no doubt receive prime focus on May Day. This rule has been observed more in the breach in Sri Lanka over the years on account of an incurable tendency on the part of some major political parties to engage in their verbosity bashing over issues, which, although unrelated to worker interests take centre-stage in their individual political agendas.

For some time now it has been felt that May Day celebrations in Sri Lanka have had little to do with worker welfare - the prime focus of the originators of May Day. The criticism holds that in Sri Lanka, May Day celebrations are seized by the majority of political parties and their trade unions to engage in just another round of political sloganising and verbal lambasting of political adversaries.

While pointing to the degree to which the Lankan polity has been divisively politicised, these tendencies are a reflection also of the extent to which worker interests per se have been sidelined in the action programs and agendas of many political parties and their trade unions.

May Day was born from the struggle for the eight-hour day. That struggle, in turn, emerged as part and parcel of the working class itself. Working classes have existed since the development of agriculture, about ten-thousand years ago. Serfs, slaves, tradespeople and others were forced to turn over the fruits of their labour to an exploiting class.

But the modern working class_the class of 'free labour', whose exploitation is hidden by the wage system is only several hundred years old. Although its exploitation is masked, it is no less brutal. Men, women and children are forced to work long hours in miserable conditions just to eke out a bare existence.