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)
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 . . .")
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
With the pictures and text, my ears almost begin to hurt and my lungs long for fresh air. Thanks for making the last day of the Vegetarian Festival in Phuket come alive in my Queens apt., where it suddenly seems so quiet.
ReplyDeleteLove to you both.