Kathina is a Buddhist festival which comes at the end of Vassa, the three-month rainy season retreat for Theravada Buddhists in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The season during which a monastery may hold Kathina is one month long, beginning after the full moon of the eleventh month in the Lunar calendar. It is a time of giving, for the laity to express gratitude to bhikkhus. Lay Buddhists bring donations to temples, especially new robes for the monks. Also the gift of the attha parikara - the Eight Requisites - is part of the offerings.
Origins
Kathina is a Pali word referring to the wooden frame used to measure the length and width by which the robes of Buddhist monks are cut. As the legend goes, thirty bhikkhus were journeying with the intention of spending Vassa with Gautama Buddha. However, the rains began before they reached their destination and they had to stop at Saketa. According to Buddha's guidelines for Vassa, mendicant monks shouldn't travel during the rainy season as they may unintentionally harm crops and/or insects during their journey. As such, the monks had to stop. The bhikkhus passed their time together without conflict and practicing Dhamma so afterwards, the Buddha rewarded the monks by demonstrating a way to practice sharing and generosity. A lay disciple had previously donated pieces of cloth to the Buddha, so the Buddha now gave the pieces to the group of monks and told them to make it into a robe and then offer it as a gift to one of them. A frame, called a Kathina, was used to hold the pieces while they were being made into one robe.
Practices
Myanmar
Kathein refers to the ceremony during which yellow robes called matho thingan are offered to the sangha between the first waning day of Thadingyut and the full moon day of Tazaungmon in the Burmese calendar. During this period, certain rules of the Vinaya are relaxed for monks. Kahtein trees called badaytha bin, on which offerings like money are hung, are also offered.
Thailand and Laos
Kathin in Thailand is the name for the robes of an ordained monk. The ceremony of kathina is called Thod Kathin. The Thai lunar calendar reckons the day after the 11th full moon as Waning 1, Evening, Moon 11. The presentation of kathin by the King of Thailand's representative is called The Royal Kathin Ceremony and often has been an occasion for one of Thailand's Royal Barge Processions. The Kathin Festival is a traditional Buddhist festival celebrated by villagers in Isan and Laos. Colourful parades and offering ceremonies at the end of monks' retreat at local temples. On Ok Phansa day of the full moon, villagers and city dwellers will go to their local temple for prayers and paying respect to the sacred. Ok Phansa is also the beginning of a 30-day period of merit-making which affords a special opportunity for prayers to Buddha and for the presentation of gifts to the monks for preserving the faith. This 30-day span of merit making and religious gift giving is referred to as Thord Pha Gathin. Thord Gathin takes its name from the "laying down" of new robes to the monks. The offering of new, saffron robes to the monks is particularly meritorious and important. Other gifts to the monks may include basic utensils, toiletries, writing materials, and food. Gift-giving is an act of appreciation and gratitude to the monks. Individuals or community groups may perform them. Many villagers combine efforts by collecting cash donations for the maintenance of their local temple. Such donations are vividly arranged on a "money tree" which looks rather like a colourful Christmas tree bedecked with banknotes as the "foliage". The money tree is ceremoniously paraded to the temple, led by a team of drummers and musicians, with the villagers carrying their own individual gifts on trays bringing up the rear. In this way at Thord Gathin, the lay-people of Thailand reaffirm their faith and, in a joyous fashion, bring gifts to Buddha and his servants.
Malaysia
Kathina has been held in Malaysia since 2009, across many temples. Although 19.4% of those practicing Buddhism in Malaysia are predominantly of the Mahayana tradition, a recent emergence of the Theravada tradition from Thailand in the North and Sri Lanka in the South has started the tradition of the observance of Vassa across Buddhist temples in Malaysia. Vassa is observed starting on the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, and the choice of the date of the Kathina celebration, as well as the end of Vassa observance for each respective temple can range from the first day of the ninth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month.
