JacobBurke->Travel: The Phuket Vegetarian Festival

Here in Phuket, there is a vegetarian festival every year. It is celebrated all over the area and is held for 9 days. The closest area where the festival is held to us, is at the Chinese temple down the street from our house. I shall now explain to you what happened on the first day of the festival.

At the beginning of the festival we saw people pasting gold flakes onto a pole at the center of the temple. After that, other people came out of the temple shaking like crazy with foam coming out of their mouths. They were also whipping themselves, razoring their tongues and more painful stuff. They believed that they were in a trance and that there were spirits inside them shielding them from the pain. After the people walked around the area, the giant pole was risen to call the 9 gods down. There was 9 candles hung on the pole too.

The next day I went to the temple at night and listened to the name calling event. While we were there, we got some Thai food near the temple. Since it was the vegetarian festival, Thai people only sold vegetarian food. It was still very good. When we were full we went to a shop which sold fireworks, and I got to launch fireworks for the first time in my life! The ones I launched were the small bee fireworks, which would jet up in the sky.

On Monday, we went back to the temple at 8:00 to see the fire walking. When we arrived we went past the temple and into the center of the festival. There was a large sand mound there. On the sand mound there was the fiery coals. Every once in awhile people would mix the coals with a long wooden pole. After a while of waiting, the possessed people came out and danced around the area. Then, they came to the area I was at and prayed to the model gods next to me. After all of them did that, they would run through the hot coals.

After watching the fire walking for some time, we went down to our house and launched some fireworks. One of my favorite ones was the Mini Mountain. That one blew a whole bunch sparks out of its roof, like a volcano, up into the sky.

At the last part of the festival I went to go see the releasing of the spirits. There were two places where this part was being held were Sampanhin beach and Nai Yang beach. We decided to go to Nai Yang because it was less crowded. When we arrived we went to The Boss Bar and ordered one huge fish and many large shrimp fresh from the sea. They disappeared very quickly. After that, my brothers and I launched a few fireworks. We thought that the ceremony would happen at 8:00 but the locals said it would happen at 1:00, way too late. Fortunately they also told us that a parade would be coming in a little bit. While we were waiting, we launched off a lot of our fireworks. I even got to launch a Roman Candle.

When the parade came, we set off a string of firecrackers. The parade was a little disappointing though, for it was just a few cars.

History of the Vegetarian Festival

The Vegetarian festival started when a group of people came into the town and got sick. To get better, they started a vegetarian diet to honor the two gods Kiew Ong Tai Teh and Yok Ong Sone Teh. Mysteriously, they became well again. The local townsfolk were fascinated by this and asked how it was done. They were told about the festival and started doing it from the first night of the ninth lunar month to the ninth evening. Later, a person familiar with the festival volunteered to return to Kansai, China. There, he invited the sacred Hiao Ho-le or Hiao lan (incense smoke) and Lian Tui (name plaques) to stay in Kathu. He also brought the holy writing used in ceremonies. The afternoon before the festival begins, a great pole at each temple is raised, called the Go Teng pole. This pole is put up so that the gods can descend.

At midnight candles are put on the pole to signalize the opening of the fest. Ma Song, or entranced horses, are devotees whom the gods enter during the fest. They manifest supernatural powers and perform self-tortures in order to shift evil from individuals onto themselves, and to bring the community good luck. Ma Song fall into two categories: those who, having had an intimation of impending doom, want to extend their lives; and people specially chosen by the gods for their moral qualities.*

Throughout the festival fireworks and drums are sounded, especially during ceremonies. It is held that the louder they are the better, because the noise drives away evil spirits.*