The annual vegetarian festival will get under way between the first to the ninth day of the ninth lunar month in the Chinese calendar. This year, it will fall between Oct 17-25 and celebrations have been organised in many places including Bangkok, Pattaya, Suphan Buri, Nakhon Sawan, Takua Pa in Phangnga and Hat Yai. The highlight will be a grand celebration in Phuket, believed to be the origin of the vegetarian festival in Thailand.
The nine-day festival is a period when people refrain from consuming meat and animal-derived food such as dairy, animal oil, fish sauce and eggs. They will also not consume strong-smelling plants such as garlic, onion, rakkyo (Chinese garlic), chives and tobacco. Last but not least, they will also abstain from alcohol and sex. The aim is to purify the mind and body to gain merit.
The history of the vegetarian festival is believed to have started in the Kratu district of Phuket in 1825 when some members of a visiting Chinese opera troupe became sick from an illness, believed to be malaria. Therefore, the rest of the troupe adhered to a strict vegetarian diet to pay homage to the Nine Emperor Gods whom they believed to have power in curing illnesses and granting good fortune, wealth and longevity. Soon, the ill performers recovered and they carried on the practice every year, which later spread to other Chinese descendants living in many parts of the country.
During the vegetarian festival, Chinese shrines in Phuket organise extravagant parades of devotees who act as ma song or spiritual mediums. By tradition, they pierce sharp weapons of the Chinese deities such as swords and spears through their cheeks, earlobes or arms. But some devotees prefer to use weird objects like daggers, an aluminium fence, an M16 toy gun, a guitar, a saw blade and steel chains.
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