{"id":2455,"date":"2015-10-09T08:34:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T06:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2015-10-09T08:38:19","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T06:38:19","slug":"phuket-vegetarian-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/2455-phuket-vegetarian-festival","title":{"rendered":"The surprising Phuket Vegetarian Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Phuket, if there is one marking\u00a0festival it\u00a0is certainly\u00a0the <strong>Phuket Vegetarian Festival<\/strong>. A\u00a0tradition of nearly 200 years that\u00a0impresses visitors with its very surprising rituals.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/2f\/Face_Piercing_Phuket_Vegetarian_Festival_28.jpg\/640px-Face_Piercing_Phuket_Vegetarian_Festival_28.jpg\" alt=\"Festival v\u00e9g\u00e9tarien de Phuket\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" data-wp-imgselect=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Flickr \/Author :Joseph Ferris III<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/en\/events-thailand\/phuket-vegetarian-festival-40\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The Phuket Vegetarian Festival<\/strong><\/a> (or <em>jia chai<\/em>\u00a0in chinese dialect Hokkien) takes its origin\u00a0in the area of Kathu, in 1825, when passing through Phuket to distract minors, a Chinese opera troupe got\u00a0ill. A strange inexplicable\u00a0illness. To heal, the troupe\u00a0followed\u00a0a vegetarian diet while paying tribute to the gods. Since this miracle of healing, the people of Phuket have developed a belief in vegetarianism and the Vegetarian Festival has continued for 190 years. It takes place every year during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. During the 10 days of\u00a0the event, it is fashionable to abstain from eating meat to purify his soul and make offerings to the gods.<\/p>\n<p>Especially followed by the Chinese people, this ritual has become <strong>a big\u00a0festival in\u00a0Phuket<\/strong>, with a religious procession\u00a0going\u00a0around the city on the 6th day. People\u00a0should also be dressed in white, practice abstinence and not drink alcohol during these 10 days.<\/p>\n<p>But what marks the visitors, it is above all the suprising and a little scaring sacred rituals performed by\u00a0some kind of\u00a0fakirs known as <em>&#8220;Song Ma&#8221;<\/em>. On the\u00a0rogramme: insertion of all kinds of sharp and pointed objects in the cheeks, barefoot walk on hot coals or climbing ladders with rungs sharp &#8230; Not for sensitive people !<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r39_99z5IKg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>This year the festival will take place from 13 to 21 October 2015<\/strong>. Do not hesitate to join the festivities and to go and discover the rites and processions around Chinese temples in <strong>Phuket<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>For more information about the festival and Phuket<\/strong>\u00a0:TAT Phuket office &#8211; Tel. +66 7 621 1036<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Phuket, if there is one marking\u00a0festival it\u00a0is certainly\u00a0the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. A\u00a0tradition of nearly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events-festivals-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailandee.com\/blog\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}