On Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:44:40 -0800, Gordon wrote:

Can you explain this "festival" to this unenlightened fool?
Thanks
Gordon
http://www.fattygoodlander.com/scary_veggies

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival apparently basically is a mix of the
Chinese Vegetarian Month and the Hindu , mainly Tamil, Thaipusm
Festival as practiced in Singapore and Malaysia.

Most, or perhaps many. Chinese in SEA wear white and abstain from
eating meat, in any form, for one month a year. I'm not sure exactly
this is done but certainly some sense of atonement is evident. The
more devout abstain from sex and spend at least part of the month at a
Wat (Temple).

The Thaipusam Festival celebrates when Parvati gave Murugan a vel
(spear) so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman. I'm not sure
about India but in both Singapore and Phuket the piercing of the body
is fairly common. In Singapore they carry a metal frame suspended from
hooks through the skin of their chest for about a mile while in Phuket
they are into walking about with a sword through their cheek, sewers
through the arms and so on.

I know a bloke in Singapore who went through it and he tells me if you
have been "pure" for a month or so before the event and pray, that is
not painful.

The thing that seems to me rather strange is that they don't seem to
bleed in any normal fashion and I've been within arms length of the
participants in both Singapore and Phuket and I can assure you that it
is real.

The Thaipusam Festival seems to be particular to Phuket, perhaps
because at one time the population was mainly Chinese, working in the
tin dredging business, at least I have never seen it in any other part
of the Kingdom, while the Chinese Vegetarian Month is pretty much
found all over the country. My wife, for example, abstains from meat
that month but thinks the guys with the swords through their cheeks
are stupid.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)