Vegetarian Festival in Phuket

Phuket, an island in Thailand, is most often associated with popular beaches and luxury resorts, and once a year it hosts the most intriguing festival in the world. The Vegetarian Festival in Phuket lasts nine days in the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar, so it can be celebrated in either September or October. The festival attracts thousands of Taoist worshipers who engage in extreme acts of self-mutilation that they believe help purify their souls.

Attention! Impressive further it is better not to look.

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4. The Vegetarian Festival is popular throughout Thailand, but it reaches its peak in places where Chinese immigrants live the most.

5. Believers parade through the streets, many with swords, spears, metal pipes and all kinds of sharp objects inserted into their cheeks and other parts of their bodies.

6. Ritual mutilations are carried out in a local Buddhist temple. Believers under clear guidance are introduced into a state similar to a trance, and their body parts are pierced.

7. Many describe their state during the festival as a kind of semi-conscious trance under the protection of one of the Nine Imperial Gods, in whose honor the festival is held.

8. It is believed that mutilations will attract evil spirits, and thus the whole society will receive good luck.

9. The origin of the festival is not really known, but locals believe it was brought to Phuket in the 1800s by an itinerant Chinese opera group.

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12. Thousands of people flock to the island to participate in the same cleansing rituals.

13. In addition to the piercing of body parts, there are other activities of the festival, such as processions with images of the gods, climbing ladders with blades and bathing in hot oil.

14. Fireworks are heard everywhere, but the best fireworks are held on the final night. The louder, the more chances to drive away evil spirits.