マレーシア・ニュース

キリスト教、仏教。両宗教の祝日

ペナン：Yijing(I-Ching Book Change)の勉強を約30年もの間研究しているDr・チュアン・チョン・チェン氏は明日の金曜日、教会にはキリスト教徒が、お寺には仏教徒、それぞれ約1,000人の人が集まるだろうと話した。明日はキリスト教にとって受難記念日である聖金曜日であり、仏教にとって明日は慈悲の女神観音様の誕生日なのであり、このように宗教の祝日が重なるのは極めて稀なことだという。計算上によればこの2つの祝日が重なるのは、1906年から2127年の200年の間に2回しか起こらず、次に重なる日は2027年の3月26日と約20年後であると話した。キリスト教徒は十字架に磔されたジーザス・キリストを前にスペシャルミサ（儀式）を行い、仏教は食事を観音様に捧げ、祈りを寺に向かって捧げるという話だ。

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[ 4月5日　20：51　MCS]

ニュース・ソース

Christians and Buddhists to mark special religious events

PENANG: Thousands of Malaysians will be thronging churches and temples tomorrow to celebrate a holy day. For the Christians, it is Good Friday. For the Buddhists, it is the birthday of the Goddess of Mercy or Kuan Yin.

While Christians attend special masses to mark the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, devotees of Kuan Yin will go on a vegetarian diet and offer prayers to the Goddess at temples.

Dr Chuah Chong Cheng, who has studied Yijing (I-Ching Book of Change) for the past 30 years, described the joint celebrations as an “extremely rare occurrence”.

“According to my calculations, Good Friday coincided with Kuan Yin’s birthday twice in more than 200 years, from 1906 to 2127.

“We will have to wait another 20 years before these two important religious dates coincide again,” he said.

The next occurrence will be on March 26, 2027.

Dr Chuah, a retired lecturer from Universiti Sains Malaysia and an academic consultant at the Geocosmic Centre of Yijing Metascience Research Malaysia, added that Buddhists couples hoping to conceive should pray to Kuan Yin on Good Friday.

“Legend has it that Kuan Yin used to be a man known as the ‘God of Mercy’.

“Many women came to him for help when they couldn’t conceive,” he said.

“Because he helped grant the wishes of so many infertile women, he himself became a woman,” he added.

According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, Kuan Yin is the Chinese name for the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.

Avalokitesvara was originally depicted as Buddha when he was still a prince in India.

However, in China, Kuan Yin is usually depicted as a woman.

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.<5-4-2007 THE STAR>