Today marks the start of the Vegetarian Festival in Thailand. In Samut Prakan it runs from 7th to 17th October 2010. We went to Thong Siang Vegetarian House in Samut Prakan to watch this opening ceremony.
The event was a signal for the nine Gods to come down to earth. Something similar happened all over Thailand today. During the following ten days, people will keep a strict vegetarian diet and also obey ten basic rules which will help cleanse their mind and body.
According to legend, the nine Gods come down from heaven to inspect the earth and to record the good and bad deeds of everyone. So, during the festival it is important for Chinese people to be on their best behaviour.
Refraining from eating meat means less animals being slaughtered which will gain them some merit. People taking part in the festival will often wear white and will visit their local shrines to pay respect to the spirits. If you want to visit a shrine then you should wear white too out of respect.
In addition to not eating meat, strong smelling vegetables cannot be eaten. Such as garlic, onion, spring onion, Chinese chives and Chinese parsley. In Thailand, many popular Thai dishes are replicated by using tofu and extra mushrooms.
The symbol for the festival is a small yellow flag with the words in Thai “jay” which means “vegetarian”. In Thai culture, yellow represents Buddhism and good moral conduct. When looking to buy vegetarian food, we need to look out for the small yellow flags on the foodstalls. This t-shirt has a cartoon of a pig saying “thank you” for eating vegetarian!
- Posted from my iPhone
better than KFC and McDonalds lol but the name...