Nirvana Day

This is a Jodo Shinshu/Mahayana Buddhist service that marks the death of the Buddha. It is known as either Parinirvana or just Nirvana Day.

Buddhists celebrate the death of the Buddha, because having attained Awakening, he achieved freedom from physical existence and its sufferings.

The Buddha’s death came when he was eighty years old, and had spent forty years teaching after his Enlightenment. He died in a state of meditation, and attained nirvana, a release from the cycle of death and rebirth.