Buddhist Holidays

2nd and 3rd August of this week are Buddhist holidays. 

Thursday is Asanabucha Day which commemorates Buddha's first sermon to his first disciples. 
Then Friday is the first day of Buddhist Lent which goes for three months and coincides with rainy season. 

Traditionally, during Lent, young men take the opportunity to become monks for a time.  This seems to be a part of every male's life, that they take on being a monk for a short time.  It strikes me that this tradition has a three-fold purpose.
1) It forms a rite of initiation.
2) It is part of one's upbringing.
3) It fulfills a family obligation. 
While you are a monk, you are full-on monk.  There is no sense of just being part-time or being younger.  It is that you are a monk like all the other monks. 

Maybe we could learn something from this in the west.