"vegetarian festival" news and stories

Photo: vegetarianfestival.jp.

There are loads of meat-this/meat-that festivals, but in honor of World Vegetarian Day, Slashfood would like to highlight international veggie gatherings.

Day Without Meat, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 3-4: To raise awareness for the benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet, the Brazilian Vegetarian Society in partnership with Greenpeace, Instituto Nina Rosa and others will provide information on vegetarianism, screen films, hold workshops and offer food and wine tastings.

Photo: www.houstonhotsauce.com

September might be halfway over and autumn imminent, but that doesn't mean the fall food fun has to end. Here's a selection of September food fests across the country.

Nappanee Apple Festival, Nappanee, Ind., Sept. 17-20: Apple season is upon us. Many are headed to pick-your-own orchards. This festival includes an apple-peeling contest, apple bake-off, pie-eating contest and the world's largest baked apple pie, weighing in at 600 pounds and a whopping 7 feet across. There's a daily lumberjack show, too.

The Houston Hot Sauce Festival, Houston, Sept. 19-20: Hot sauce festivals are on fire! Nationwide, they're popular, chilehead blow-outs. Attendees can sample and purchase a plethora of sauces, chiles and dry rubs. Don't forget to vote in the People's Choice for the Hottest Hot Sauce at this ninth annual festival.

Since the 1800's in Thailand, there has been a yearly vegetarian festival in which attendees participate in rituals from eating to piercing themselves with spears to drive away evil spirits. Everyone refrains from sex and meat-eating, and they dance and celebrate to bring luck to their community!

The Vegetarian Festival began in 1825. A traveling Chinese opera company came to Phuket and immediately fell ill with a mysterious disease. While they were sick, they observed a brief two-day tradition of honoring past emperors by refraining from eating meat. These two events would seem to be unrelated, but the opera company members' illness vanished! The people of Phuket were fascinated, and learned the vegetarian rituals the company had followed to cure themselves. They continue to honor vegetarianism as restorative and cleansing, and the festival is now a 10-day affair during the 9th lunar month.

The Vegetarian Festival, alive and well, took place from September 28th to October 7th this year, and below is our gallery. If you're feeling brave, you can see pictures of the piercings here, and you can read more about the history and traditions of the festival here.

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