Vegetarian Festival or what Chinese people living in Phuket call “Jia Chai”. It is a tradition that Chinese people have respected for a long time. The ceremony day falls on the 1st to 9th day of the waxing moon according to the Chinese calendar every year. It has also been announced in the Royal Gazette. Section 22 is a local cultural heritage of Phuket Province and a national heritage of Thailand as well.
Overseas Chinese move to Thailand most of them will settle in Phuket province. This Vegetarian Festival first began 200 years ago, when a Chinese junk arrived in 1825 from the Kathu (Nai Thu) community, during the heyday of the tin industry. As a result, people from all over the world come here to earn a living. The terrain of the Kathu region is dense forest. Mosquitoes and malaria infection. Then the villagers in the community all fell ill. A Chinese opera troupe came from the Hokkien to perform as entertainment for the miners.
However, the opera group wondered why people were sick. He then knew that his group was not together. “Jia Chai” or literally translated as “Vegetarian Ceremony” as we have always done. So the ritual of eating vegetables began after that. They do what they did when they were still in China. In other words There will be offerings to the Yok Ong Song Te , Gaw Ong Tai Te including Lao Eia to ask for forgiveness and purify the body. and ward off bad luck to avoid illness.
Surprisingly, not long after the ritual Various diseases and epidemics has completely disappeared make people in Phuket province have strong faith and veneration in the gods. Therefore, the beautiful tradition has been passed on until it has become the largest Vegetarian Festival in Phuket and nearby provinces.
