Last night of Phuket vegetarian festival was a blast – VIDEO

Last night (October 7), Phuket local shrines gathered for the final day parades of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, which took place from September 29 to October 7.

Almost all of the Chinese shrines in Phuket had their Mah Song walking around the city with members of the shrine holding palanquins adorned with Chinese gods for blessing people lining the streets for the parade.

In front of houses and shops, there were worship tables set to welcome the Mah Song. Along the street where the parade passed, there were plenty of fire crackers continuously blasting along with fireworks.

The parades wound their way through the streets of Phuket Town, as they have for centuries, heading to the cape of Saphan Hin, where they invited the Chinese Gods from heaven nine days before. Any firecrackers not used during the annual festival are liberally thrown into the parade, a cacophony of noise, acrid smoke and thousands of spectators.

Once at Saphin Hin, the ceremony begins to send the Gods back to heaven after nine days of blessing people who witnessed the vegetarian festival, ate at the street side stalls or joined in any of the processions. A bonfire at Saphan Hin was an auspicious and spectacular farewell to the Jade Emperor and the Nine Emperor gods who have walked the Earth during the festival.

All of the shrines around Phuket, principally around Phuket Town and Kathu, also brought down the Go Teng pole, which is the sign of this year’s festival coming to a close.

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