The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is just a couple of weeks away. It’s scheduled for October 5-13 2013, so you still have time to attend.
One in the year’s big events in Thailand’s top tourist destination, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event held during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. It is believed that the vegetarian festival and its accompanying sacred rituals bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite.
During this time, local residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian or vegan diet for the purposes of spiritual cleansing.
Sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines and temples. There are parades like the one pictured above, and aesthetic displays such as walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs are performed by entranced devotees known as "Ma Song".
I might be persuaded to go vegetarian for a week, or even to ride a papier mache turtle in a parade, but if asked to stick a bunch of stuff through my face like the guy above, I’d have to pass.
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