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Vegetarian Festival is over |
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Friday, 19 October 2007 |
 Today is the last day of the famous Vegetarian Festival in Thailand, which in usually celebrated by Thailand's chinese Immigrants. It runs over several days and originates in the Chinese Temples in Thailands Cities. The Vegetarian Festival is well known by tourists on Phuket Island but is also celebrated in other cities like Surathani and Krabi. Sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines and temples and aesthetic displays such as boddy piercing, walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs are performed by entranced devotees known as "Ma Song". Men and women puncture their cheeks with various items including knives, skewers and other household items. It is believed that the Chinese gods will protect such persons from harm, and little blood or scarring results from such mutilation acts. This is definitely not recommended for the feint hearted to witness. Some scary pictures fro the procession in Phuket can be seen on this German Site!
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; "Vegetarian Festival 2007")
