The Vegetarian Festival is a religious event originating from China. It was observed in Phuket for the first time in the newly developed mining town of Kathu by a Chinese opera company about 170 years ago.
Kathu was then a thriving town inhabited mostly by Chinese miners. As they were well-to-do and in need of recreation, they hired an opera troupe from China to give performances. Everything went on smoothly and the troupe was able to stay there for several months. Then they were suddenly stricken by an epidemic and the theatre was forced to close down.
The trouble reminded the leading members of the company of the religious rites they had performed in China periodically but that they had neglected to do since arriving in Thailand. They were convinced that they were being punished with the illness for their negligence.
Perhaps the most visible pictures of
the festival are those of the mediums
piercing themselves with strange objects.
So when the time came for the observance, the whole troupe abstained from eating meat and animal oil and performed religious rites for a period of 9 days and 9 nights, in order to purify their bodies and minds, and to get rid of evil.
Vegetarians in white clothes waiting
for the procession at their tables of offerings.
Strange to say, all the members of the troupe recovered their health immediately afterwards. This caused great curiosity to the local people. Some of them did the same thing the next year and found it beneficial both physically and mentally. The number of people practising this increased year by year, in Phuket Island and other provinces with numerous Chinese descendants. And now it has become a festival for the whole country highlighting provinces such as Phuket, Trang, Songkhla (Hat Yai county) and Chon Buri (Pattaya) where grand-scale celebrations take place.
The festival has undergone some changes in form and content through decades and has become more and more colourful and fascinating. Details of procedures are different in different provinces. As practised today