Fanning out the candles

Fanning out the candles,

Last chapter of the festivities at Fo Guang Shan, the Buddhist monastery order.

Finally after a fortnight of celebrations, the time had come to end this year's festivities.

To properly mark the end of it, there was an elaborate praying session held by the nuns and monks, involving chanting, reciting Buddha's prayers....and this being a first time for me......I witnessed the participants holding candles and blowing them out.....apparently it is a symbol of bringing in the "Light" into one's body for the coming year.....whatever that means....

And to truly mark the end of the prayers, two nuns, each standing adjacent to the main praying hall, recited some prayers and respectively beating on a big drum  or gonged the bell as shown in below pics and vids..............

And with the sounds of the final drumbeat and bell gong slowly fading away............life returns back to normal,.....

As in peace and quietness......nuns and monks in their solitary search for Enlightment....and as for us...common folks, who might have missed out on Buddha's blessing...

Don't worry, always another year....till NEXT year :)