The End of the Festival

The last night of the Vegetarian Festival was upon us. The finale of this 10 day event focuses on showing respect to the Jade Emperor and to the ruler of heaven, the world of man and hell. I was warned ahead of time to wear a bandanna and ear plugs - I didn't. I'm sure my lungs now look like I've been chain smoking for a year, hopefully they'll recover by next time. The last day of Veg Fest was one of the most intense experiences of my life.

The night started like many nights we've had at the festival - with food. After picking up silver dollar pancake rolls filled with pistachio custard we make our way towards the Jui Tui Shrine. It was still early, maybe 9:00 and the festivities weren't supposed to kick off until 10:00. The shrine though was alive with people preparing for the parade. I was again mesmerized by the children and their fireworks. A pack of little boys pendulated between throwing tiny fire crackers at each other and working as a team to load up the "fire house" with thousands of fire crackers and setting them all off at once. The floor in front of the "fire house" is ankle deep in red firecracker paper.

(Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to rotate the video - advice is welcome)

People are burning Joss Paper on the other side of the shrine, somberly lighting candles and holding burnt in incense as offerings to the gods, all indifferent to the armature and professional photographers hovering around them.

The constant noise and smoke begins to wear on us, so we decide to quit the shrine and go look for other festivities. All of the shrines are supposedly meeting up and following the same parade route, so we go out in search of that - having no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

There was an emptieness on the main street of the festival as food vendors are packing up their display cases, deep fryers, and woks for the year. Down the road large fireworks are exploding.

Making our way down the street we felt like we were heading in the right direction. Intermittently their would be round after round of bursting firecrackers. In the distance there was  the main circle and crowds of white clothed people wearing the stereotypical Asian face masks. If I had known I would of found one of those masks immediately, as it was, it was until we were leaving that someone gave both Jackie and I a face mask.

From a distance it seems as if the crowd ss veiled by a cloak of fog. As we approach, we realize that the streets, the crowd and even the buildings less than a block away are disappearing into firecracker smoke. Grownups and children alike stand at the edge of the street with white grocery bags full of packs of fire crackers. As the procession of shrine members pass by they are bombarded packs of fire crackers thrown by the crowd. It is as close to being in a riot as I have ever been. The density of the crowd, the severity of the smoke and the chaos of entire packs of fire crackers blowing up everywhere was thrilling. Breathing through our shirt collars Jackie and I watch the procession. Packs of firecrackers rained down on the people carrying the gods on their shoulders. And even Jackie and I know weren't not entirely safe from having firecrackers blowing up next to us.

 ("The three best friends that anybody could have . . .")

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op-4iqRCDV4 )

 Mai Songs, members of the shrines that have been possessed by the gods, stop at places of offering to bless people and accept offerings of food and drink. While they stand still, long bamboo rods wrapped in fire crackers are lit and and shook above them, dripping thousands of tiny explosives onto their heads and shoulders. The stoic Mai Songs never flinch as fireworks explode on their bare skin. They seeme unaware of the chaos attributed to them.

There are ton of other awesome pictures here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/101782615335640844329/LastDayOfVegFest?authkey=Gv1sRgCObItL-kte7gCQ

The Ninth Month of the Lunar Calendar

Flakes of gold wash down the steps of the Jui Tui Shrine and into the streets where they catch the grey light of the stormy day and shimmer.We have entered the ninth month of the lunar calendar,  and Phuket's Chinese Vegetarian Festival has begun. Unsure of where exactly the festivities were, Jackie and I grabbed a quick bite after school and headed towards Phuket Town. Given how many shrines there are we were confident that with a little luck we would find something.

More and more yellow banners and flags with red Chinese script flutter in the wind as we approach the shrines. There is a trickling and then a deluge of white robbed people in the streets. The road is closed off. Down each side, dozens and dozens of food vendors have established their base and are offering a variety of vegetarian foods, most of which look adequately deep fried. We turn off the main road and work against the crowd, occasionally someone holding a sheathed sword or a small beautiful hand-ax squeezes by us.

The shrine appears on the street like a mountain breaking through the morning's mist. The bend of the flag poles and the elegant ornate design of the entire shrine complex is breath taking. The golds and reds are vibrant against the dark grey sky. Jackie and I hesitantly stand at the entrance unsure if we are allowed in, but not wanting to miss out on the experience we start moving up the steps. I feel exceptionally out of place in my silver "space suit" rain pants and my blue shirt. Jackie at least had a white shirt to help her blend into the crowd. No one seemed to be bothered by our presence, so we pushed froward. 

People are drifting around the cobbled court yard of the complex. There are men and woman in costume carrying whips and banners on poles. Children too young to be without their mothers, teenagers, middleaged people, and the elderly all present themselves to the costumed individuals. As if possessed, the costumed person covers a kneeling person with their flag and starts chanting a prayer. Snap, snap, snap cracks the whip. Closer and closer the whip cracks, sometimes directly on the skin of those kneeling before them, but no one moves, no one flinches. A group of boys stand near a small tall ornate building. The red building is wrapped with gold dragons. A small door is open revealing piles of shredded red paper, firecracker paper. The boys take turns running up to the doorway and throwing lit firecrackers inside. More often then not the boys just end up toss the firecrackers or small fireworks on the ground to watch them explode. There was something wonderful about seeing children play with firecrackers in a crowd without overbearing adults robbing them of their celebration.