Ceremonies were held on Monday at temples nationwide to celebrate Buddha's birthday.

The Jogye Order, the nation's largest Buddhist sect, held a ceremony at Jogye Temple to mark the Buddha's two-thousand-569th birthday under the theme “peace to the world and mercy to the heart.”

The event saw the attendance of some ten-thousand people, including the head of the Jogye Order, Venerable Jinwoo and Acting President Lee Ju-ho. 

Bereaved families of victims of last December’s Jeju Air crash, jeonse or housing lease fraud victims and people with developmental disabilities and their families were invited to the event. 

In his celebratory speech, Venerable Jinwoo called for social unity as he said the path to true wisdom is to let go of confrontation and hostility and pursue mutual understanding and harmony.  

Acting President Lee proposed in his speech to follow the Buddha's teachings of compassion and coexistence to pave the way for integration and common prosperity.