Veggie tales: Phuket festival wraps up with street processions
The annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival is winding down, with the Lor Rong Shrine, also known as Sui Boon Tong Shrine, staging its street procession through Phuket Town today. This event, known as Iu Keng, showcased numerous spirit mediums and attracted large crowds of locals as well as Thai and foreign tourists.
Locals along the procession route set up altars and lit firecrackers to welcome the mah song spirit mediums. In a display of devotion, these mediums pierced their cheeks with sharp objects such as swords, iron weapons, and even branches.
Other shrines across Phuket, including Kathu Shrine, Bang Neow Shrine, and Sapam Shrine, conducted their rituals last night as the festival heads towards its final closing ceremony. These rituals included fire-walking and bridge-crossing to ward off bad luck.
Today, October 11, starting at 10pm, the participating shrines will hold the final ceremony of the festival. The deities Yok Hong Song Te and Kiew Hong Tai Te will be symbolically sent back to the heavens.
Many streets in Phuket Town will be dedicated to processions, filled with the sounds of firecrackers, as the main shrines make their way to Saphan Hin for the final ceremony.
Photo courtesy of Phuket News
At Saphan Hin, the deities will be symbolically sent off, and as the procession departs, the lights at each shrine will be extinguished, and the gates will be closed, marking the end of the festival.
Tomorrow at sunset, the final act of the annual Vegetarian Festival will be the lowering of the Go Teng poles at all participating shrines across the island, reported Phuket News.
