Dear Jim and friends,

Vesak is the major Buddhist festival of the year as it celebrates the
birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha on the one day, the
first full moon day in May, except in a leap year when the festival
is held in June. This celebration is called Vesak being the name of
the month in the Indian calendar.

http://www.buddhanet.net/festival.htm

In M36, while the month Vesak is not specified, it did mention "in
the last month of summer" (gimhaana.m pacchime maase), which is
Vesak, the month before the start of the rainy season. Please correct
me if I am wrong.

metta,
Yong Peng

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, jimv747 wrote:
I did have one little question, if anyone can help. There is a
tradition, at least in Theravada Buddhism, that the Buddha was
enlightened on the full-moon day of May. Does anyone know if there
is a source for this in the Canon? Failing this, does anyone know
where this tradition got started? I would be most grateful for any
light you can shed on this question.