Come to the Zen Buddhist Tea Ceremony Demonstration Saturday, December 7, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. The demonstration will be presented by Tea Master Kaori MacWilliams of the Omotesenke School. The ceremony is free and open to all. Registration is suggested: https://forms.gle/YbtX4gB7dK6TQWZR7
The Tea Ceremony is a time-honored way of serving matcha. Beyond drinking the tea, the tea ceremony places value on the art of preparing and serving. There are different ways of conducting tea ceremonies based on the school of thought under which the practitioner studied. The three main tea schools in Japan are Urasenke, Mushanokōjisenke, and Omotesenke. The schools trace their lineage back to tea master Sen no Rikyu and the tea schools all have “sen” in their names to honor the tea master.
The Japanese tea ceremony is deeply rooted in Zen Buddhism. Zen concepts and philosophies are integrated into the development of the tea ceremony. The Japanese word ‘Wa Kei Sei Jaku’ represents the four most important elements: harmony, respect, purity, tranquility.
Different Japanese Tea Ceremonies are conducted depending on the time of the day and season. In traditional East Asian calendars, December 7 – 21 is the “taisetsu” season, the word is a combination of the two logographic kanji characters (大雪)meaning, ‘heavy snow’. Taisetsu marks the time of heavy snowfall and it’s when the “Yobanashi no Chaji” tea ceremony is held.
Yobanashi translates to ‘night story. With the sun setting earlier in the December sky, the ceremony is traditionally offered as the tea room is darkening, and so, a candle is lit. With the candlelight as the only illumination, we are free to choose what is important to enjoy in this unique and humbling time with our guests as we prepare for the long nights of the winter.”
The tea ceremony demonstration is part of the year-long World Spiritual Practices Project (WiSPP) grant from the Unitarian Universalist Association funding program (UUFP), which is supporting experiences from a diversity of religious and spiritual perspectives that will be conveyed through workshops, worship, speakers, arts and cultural performances, and programming.