Abhidhamma Day

Abhidhamma Day is a Theravada Buddhist celebration observed primarily in Myanmar (Burma) that has grown out of a tradition concerning the origins of the Abhidhamma, a major segment of the Pali Canon, the holy texts of Theravada Buddhism. 
The Abhidhamma literature is a collection of commentaries on the sutras, the books generally believed to be the discourses of the Buddha. One tradition suggests that the Abhidhamma developed when the Buddha visited his deceased mother in Tusita heaven and taught her about the Dharma, during the Rainy Season Retreat (Vassa Retreat) seven years after his enlightenment. He did this each night, and during the next day, he repeated the same teachings to Sariputra. Sariputra memorized and recited the entire comments to his disciple, who in turn passed them down generation by generation until they were recited at the Third Council of Buddhism, held at Pataliputra in 251 BCE. At that time, all seven books were recited accurately by Revata, and then later put in written form.

According to this tradition, following his enlightenment, the Buddha was filled with compassion for the various deities (devas) and brahmas were believed to dwell there. By this time, his mother, who had passed away shortly after his birth, had been reborn in the Tusita heaven, one of the heavenly realms in Buddhist cosmology. There she was now known as Santusita Deva. He thus went to the celestial abode and preached the Abhidhamma to both his mother and the assembly of the heaven’s divine and semi-divine beings. The preaching activity continued for three months.

When the Buddha completed his work in heaven, he asked permission of the king of the celestial realm to return to his work in the human realm. On hearing this, the king made available three stairways, one made of silver, one of gold, and one of ruby.

The stairways originated at the mythical Mount Meru and returned the Buddha to the human world at Sankisa, a town in central Uttar Pradesh, India. The Buddha selected the middle (ruby) stairway, and as he descended, he was accompanied by devas who played musical instruments and fanned him as he descended to earth. The brahmas on the silver stairway held a white umbrella to shade the Buddha.

Upon his return, the Buddha made it possible for the humans awaiting his return to see the heavenly beings who accompanied him and the celestial world they inhabited. Simultaneously, the heavenly beings saw the humans who had gathered to welcome the Buddha home.

Abhidhamma Day, celebrating the return of the Buddha after having completed his heavenly task, is held on the full moon of the seventh month of the Burmese lunar year (usually the full moon in October on the Common Era calendar), which coincides with the end of the rainy season retreat for the monks. On that day, Burmese Buddhists will gather at temples to offer lights before the statues of the Buddha. In some temples, it may be a day for holding the precepts receiving ceremony, in which the priest will invest and the congregation will accept the Five Precepts (Panca Sila), which are the five elements of right action: no killing, no stealing, no sexual immorality, no lying, and no taking of intoxicants. These five precepts form a basic Buddhist behavioral code (similar to the Ten Commandments in the Jewish and Christian traditions).
Abhidhamma Day is also known as Thadingyut.

References
Gorkom, Nina van. Abhidhamma in Daily Life. London: Triple Gem Press, 1997. Nyanatiloka. A Guide through the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1971. Thera Nyanaponika, Thera. Abhidamma Studies. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1965.

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