October Festival Guide
Body Piercing at Vegetarian Festival
October Festival Guide is full wonderful festivities happening all around the country. Thai's welcome you to join in with all the fun as they celebrate these special occasions. All regions in Thailand have their own brand of entertainment and foreigners are encouraged to join in at many of these exciting events. May I suggest that you jump in at every possible opportunity and please do remember that not all festivals and events happen on the same day each year. Some have fixed dates and others are determined by the lunar calendar.
The Chinese Vegetarian Festival is one such joyous occasion where you and I can feast on a whole host of delicious vegetarian delights. This vegetarian feeding frenzy is held from late September until early October and usually lasts for a period of nine days only although these events have been known to carry on for any number of extra days. It is very easy to identify where all the vegetarian food can be found as all the stalls fly yellow flags with red writing to symbolize that the food is in fact vegetarian. All the restaurants do likewise. Large amounts of vegetarian food is also prepared and presented as offerings to various temples around the city. The five most important Chinese temples in Phuket benefit the most from these eventful activities with the Jui Tui temple on Th Ranong being the most important. Bang Niaw and Sui Boon Tong temples in Phuket town follow close behind. Another vegetarian festival is celebrated in the town of Kathu where the festival first originated. These October Festival Guide vegetarian festivities also include a most impressive spectacle of people, ostensibly been possessed by the gods, whilst piercing their tongues, cheeks, and other parts of the anatomy with sharp implements. Apparently they feel no pain, and show little if not any signs of real injury. Amazing isn't it... but please do not try to attempt these antics at home.
Vegetarian Festival in PhuketOctober Festival Guide FestivitiesOk Phansa is an October festival celebrating the end of the Buddhist lent and rainy season. This is a day of joyful celebration and merit-making in which Thai Buddhists travel far and wide to offer new robes and gifts to Buddhists monks at their favourite temples all around Thailand. This ceremony is also the start of the Kathin season, and so after spending three months practicing meditation, these Buddhists monks can now return to their normal daily duties. This merit-making ceremony lasts for a month and is practiced nationwide. For many families, it is also the day when they welcome a son back into the home and celebrate his successful completion of a term in the temple. You are more than welcome to join in with all the feasting and fun should you be invited.
Young Monks in meditation with their new robes
October Festival Guide FestivitiesChulalongkorn Day ceremony is held held every year on 23rd October and honours one of Thailand's best loved and respected kings. For it is on this day in 1910 that King Chulalongkorn also known as King Rama V had died. The king was responsible for abolishing slavery as well as modernizing the country into the 20th century particularly in the fields of health and education. He reigned for a total of 42 years. Every year wreaths are laid in his honour in front of his statue in the plaza at the old National Assembly building in Bangkok during an afternoon ceremony. The king also traveled a lot to to neighboring countries as well as Europe. Chonburi Buffalo Race 2008October Festival Guide FestivitiesThe Chonburi Buffalo Race is held around the time of the full moon in this 11th lunar month. Normally held on a Sunday afternoon, thousands of mostly Thai's flock to this yearly festival in the city of Chonburi which I might add is only 70 kilometers or 44 miles south east of Bangkok on your way to the resort town of Pattaya. Should you be staying in Pattaya at this time of the year and would like to be entertained in a kind of rival to the Kentucky Derby then this is the place to be. Only instead of racing horses, the Thai's here race water buffaloes. Can be absolutely hilarious to watch. Take a good look at this video above. This Buffalo Race festival originally began as a social event for farmers who had gathered from around the country in Chonburi to do various trading of their wares. It then gradually grew into this annual festival. Now days it's a full blown event including a Miss Farm Maiden beauty contest and a comical costume contest whereby judges award prizes to the best decorated buffalo. Can you actually believe all this! Thai's just love to have fun or sanuk as they call it in Thai. I wouldn't like to participate in this one myself but there is no harm in you trying if you like. I don't know of any foreigners who have tried though.
I shall update any changes to my October Festival Guide in time
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