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The Thailand Vegetarian Festival (เทศกาลกินเจ) is a celebration that takes place annually in Thailand. It was in the 1800's that a group of Chinese opera singers were on tour in Thailand and traveling around. They landed in Phuket where they performed and eventually became ill. After some thought and discussion they decided they had not been showing respect and honoring the Nine Emperor Gods in the Daoist Chinese beliefs. To get better from their sickness, they made up their minds to go for a cleansing diet by remaining pure and eating a diet of only vegetarian food for the first nine days of the ninth lunar month. Along with the food, they also performed a number of rituals and ceremonies.
The vegetarian festival has since become a yearly event celebrated across the entire country of Thailand (เทศกาลกินเจ). The event attracts not only local Thais, but also a huge number of foreigners that come to experience wonderful vegetarian and vegan Thai food in abundance. The biggest of festivities takes place in southern Thailand, and especially in Phuket where there's a large population of Chinese. In the south of Thailand, the festival includes religious rituals, some ceremonies and also the famous self flagellation events, which are fascinating to witness. Participants in these sorts of activities believe that they are possessed by spirits and when they are cutting and slicing themselves, they don't believe they are actually hurting themselves but rather the spirits.
In Bangkok, the festival is less about self mutilation, but still includes plenty of ceremonies and plenty of vegetarian Thai food sprawled through the entire city. If you're in Bangkok, Yaowarat Chinatown is the home of the most significant celebration. Everyday during the festival, the streets are lined with yellow flagged vendors that serve snacks and meals that are purely vegetarian. In this Part 2 of the Thailand vegetarian festival I first enjoy a deep fried snack known as ewkuay (อิ่วก้วย) and then wash it all down with some nam lawhungkuay (น้ำหล่อฮั้งก้วย), a healthy herbal beverage. Then I head over to the Fan Jao Jo Surkong Chinese Temple in Bangkok (ศาลเจ้าโจวซือก๋ง) to see the ceremonies. Finally to wrap things up at the Thailand vegetarian festival 2012, I eat some tasty fruit salad!
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