New Year's Eve Ceremony

New Year's Eve

The New Year's Ceremony at the Centre, beginning at 9:00 pm, is an especially significant event for Buddhists. Members will be able to attend in person this year, but you can also register to attend on line with friends and family if you wish.

The Ceremony brings into focus, in a very tangible and direct way, this time of renewal—both spiritual and physical. In advance of the ceremony, we prepare our homes and our practice at the Centre by a symbolic ritual of a thorough-going cleaning. During the ceremony we rededicate our practice: there is zazen, a Repentance Ceremony, chanting, and a Peace Prayer.

The evening's formal events begin with rounds of zazen in the zendo, followed by a Repentance Ceremony in the Buddha Hall. After a small break, we continue with zazen and reading of participants' New Year's Resolutions, followed by a special (and quite noisy!) Driving-out-the-Demons circumambulation of the main floor practice area. At midnight, we conclude with a beautiful candle lighting vigil, and a reading of the New Year's Prayer.

what to bring

If attending the ceremony in person, please bring a noise making instrument: drum, gong, whistle, harmonica, rattle, etc. If you forget, or don't have one, the Centre will provide you with a noisemaker.

Resolution

We will also read the anonymous resolutions of ceremony participants during the evening. Those who are attending in person will write their resolution during the first part of the evening sitting and place them in the resolution bowl in front of the Buddha Hall altar.

If you are attending via Zoom, please enter your anonymous resolution by Saturday, December 30 on the form that will pop-up on your screen when you click the button below. (You may have to double click.) This is only for Zoomers. Those who are attending the ceremony in person will have a chance to write their resolution during the sitting.

ZOOMERS ONLY  New Year's Resolution

schedule

• 9:00 pm — Formal zazen with kinhin. Ringing of Temple Bell begins
• 9:30 — Repentance ceremony followed by a short tea break
• 10:30 — Formal zazen, including reading of resolutions (anonymously made) in the zendo
• 11:40 — Purification of Altars
• 11:50 — Driving Out of Demons Circumambulation
• 12:00 — Abbreviated Jukai ceremony followed by Candle Lighting ceremony, New Year's Prayer

Please come join us if you can for a most inspiring ceremony. And, remember to register!