Silently, Parnee Baker joined her palms in prayer and followed a procession of monks into the Sunday-afternoon sunlight.

She held in her hands stems of daisies and mums bound to glowing incense sticks, lit at an altar adorned with flowers for Visakha Puja, the holiest of Buddhist holidays.

Mrs. Baker made second and third passes around the temple before leaving the flowers at the feet of three golden Buddha statues.

"You think of good luck," Mrs. Baker whispered. "Good luck for your job, for anything. I pray for my two sons."

Mrs. Baker, a native of Thailand who married a soldier and moved to the United States 45 years ago, stepped back into the sunlight to tuck the burning incense into pots filled with sand.

It was the end of a three-hour ceremony at Wat Santidham, the Theravada Buddhist temple off Old Waynesboro Road.

Not all services include this ritual. It was special for Visakha Puja, or Buddha Day, as it's sometimes called. The holiday is a time of remembrance and celebration, and an opportunity to recommit to Buddha's teachings on enlightenment.

An hour or two before the 10:30 a.m. service, the temple's women arrived with pots of rice, stews and salads. They are mostly Thai and Laotian, and brought dishes from home or, as one cook said, the closest approximations of those foods because so many ingredients can't be found in the United States.

They filled four tables with food in a kitchen as large as the worship space. They left their shoes outside the door, and children played in the temple's gardens, full of rosebushes and newly planted trees. The six monks of Wat Santidham maintain the grounds.

Phra Maha Boonmee Nagaosuwan is the head monk. He led much of the services, which were spoken in Thai and chanted in Hindu, the Buddha's native language.

The service began as families streamed into the temple, kneeling and bowing their heads to the floor with palms pressed together.

The monks sat on a stage wrapped in mustard-yellow robes. They chanted into microphones, unwinding a ball of string from the altar. Each monk took hold of the string "for connection with the Buddha," said Harry Averill, who goes to temple with his wife, a Thai native he met when he served in the Air Force.

"Before they had this temple, we were going to Atlanta," he said. Even Wat Santidham, which opened in 1988, is still a long journey from their home in Columbia.

His wife awoke at 5 a.m. to cook, and they left home at 7. Some of the food was donated to the monks, and some was eaten by the congregation.

The monks can't buy or cook meals, so they depend upon the generosity of members, Phra Maha Boonmee said. Most bring rice for the monks, or traditional Thai food. Others offer rice cereal squares, gummy bears and Sunny Delight.

After lunch, the service resumed at 1 p.m. A woman sold bundles of flowers and incense like that Mrs. Baker had held. The donations pay for the temple's water and electric bills.

"One of the things Buddha taught is it doesn't matter what you believe in -- all religions are good," Mr. Averill said.

He said their pursuit of morality and truth -- the very things the Buddha taught -- lead them to care for the monks.

"When we feel bad, we have this one place to go," Kwanchai Dillehay said before taking her place in front of the altar. "It's like the same family. We all are one."