When does the Vegetarian Festival 2025 start? How should we prepare? Including the history of its origins
The Vegetarian Festival 2025 falls on October 21-29, 2025, for a total of 9 days. Some people may cleanse their stomachs during the evening meal on October 20, making it 10 days. Let’s understand about eating vegetarian food, the meaning of the word “vegetarian” and why we must eat vegetarian food. What do we get from eating vegetarian food? During the Vegetarian Festival, what foods are forbidden? What foods can we eat? Let’s find the answers.
When does the Vegetarian Festival 2025 start?
The Vegetarian Festival every year falls on the 1st to 9th day of the waxing moon of the 9th month according to the Chinese calendar. Which falls on the 11th month or October of Thailand according to the international calendar, for a total of 9 days and 9 nights.
The Vegetarian Festival 2025 will start from 21-29 October 2025, for a total of 9 days. Some people may cleanse their stomachs starting from 20 October in the evening meal. For a total of 10 days, which can be done.
Why do you need to do gastric lavage?
Cleansing the stomach means starting to eat vegetarian food 1-2 days before the actual festival begins to allow the body to gradually adjust and get used to eating vegetarian food better.
The meaning of the word “J”
The word “ Je ” in Chinese Buddhism means “Uposatha or keeping the 8 precepts” of Mahayana Buddhism. Which will observe Uposatha precepts, not consuming anything after noon according to the 8 precepts, and not consuming meat in order not to harm living beings. Later, people who do not eat meat are also called “ Je ”. However, eating vegetarian is not just about abstaining from meat, food, and seasonings that contain meat. But also includes keeping the precepts. Behaving as a good person in body, speech, and mind.
History of the Vegetarian Festival
The Vegetarian Festival began around 400 years ago. According to legend, it originated during the time when the Chinese were invaded by the Manchu people, who ruled China and forced the Chinese to accept their own culture, such as the Manchu hairstyle, which was to shave the front and keep the hair long at the back, which many people are familiar with in Chinese movies shown on TV.
At that time, there was a group of Chinese who gathered to resist the Manchus, using religious principles. This group of Chinese wore white and did not eat meat, believing that following these principles would help strengthen their group enough to resist the Manchus. This หากคุณสนใจเล่นพนันออนไลน์ที่ดีที่สุด สามารถสมัครสมาชิก UFABET ได้ที่นี่ พร้อมรับโปรโมชั่นพิเศษสำหรับสมาชิกใหม่ group of people called themselves “Nghihua Tong”, and despite fighting bravely, they were ultimately unable to resist the Manchus’ invasion.
On the first day of the ninth lunar month, the Chinese people who were still under Manchu rule observed the vegetarian diet to commemorate the “Ngonghuo Tung” fighters who sacrificed their lives in that war.
Another belief in the legend of eating vegetarian food is that it is a way of paying homage to 7 Buddhas from the past and 2 Bodhisattvas, totaling 9 Buddhas, or in other words, the 9 planets. In this ritual, the faithful abstain from killing animals and taking lives. Turning to practicing the precepts by making a resolution to eat vegetarian food and abstain from eating meaty food in order to observe the precepts.
In Thailand, the belief in vegetarianism is a way of abstaining from taking the lives of animals in order to pay homage to the Lord Buddha and the Bodhisattva Guan Yin. This may be due to the prevalence of abstaining from eating beef among those who worship “Guan Yin”. Therefore, vegetarianism is another ritual for paying homage.
How to prepare for the Vegetarian Festival
- Do not eat vegetables with strong smells or strong smells
because it will destroy the body and the elemental energy. The body is stimulated by the taste of that food, such as onions, spring onions, chives, chives, garlic, tobacco leaves (cigarettes, shredded tobacco, addictive substances). This means that you must refrain from smoking and drinking alcohol during the period of observing the vegetarian precepts. - Do not eat meat
or food that contains ingredients or parts of animals. Whether it be animal fat, eggs, blood, or anything related to meat. - Avoid eating food with strong flavors,
whether it is very spicy, very salty, very sweet or very sour. Because food with strong flavors will stimulate the body’s glands to work more. It is believed that this will cause the mind to be unstable during the period of observing the precepts and eating vegetarian food. - Do not eat food that is not prepared by a person who observes the vegetarian precepts.
This is why vegetarians must stay in places where vegetarians gather. Such as charity kitchens or shrines that hold events. Because the person who prepares the food will also observe the precepts. - The cups and bowls used for food must not be mixed together.
Do not kill animals or harm anyone’s life. You must wear white clothes. Do not use harsh words, lie, incite, slander or speak nonsense. - Do not drink alcohol or intoxicants
during the 9 days of the vegetarian diet. - Do not extinguish all 9 lanterns.
In places such as shrines, vegetarian restaurants, charity kitchens, or places where vegetarian festivals are held, 9 lanterns will be lit all day and all night, so someone must guard them to prevent them from going out.
Why do we have to eat vegetarian?
- Eat vegetarian for better health because vegetarian food is considered a type of organic food that helps balance the body, detoxify the body, and strengthen the body and make it work more efficiently. Because the Chinese believe that meat is “yin” and vegetables and fruits are “yang”, people naturally eat more meat than vegetables and fruits. Therefore, abstaining from eating meat helps to balance yin and yang even more.
- Eating vegetarian food is to make merit , to cleanse the mind and not harm animals, and to make our mind clearer. When we know that what we are doing is good, it will result in a more joyful and happy mind.
- Eat vegetarian to avoid the karma that comes from killing animals or even hiring someone to kill them for food. If we know that abstaining from consuming meat saves the lives of thousands and tens of thousands of animals, we will be able to reduce our karma even more.
What foods should not be eaten during the Vegetarian Festival?
- Do not eat meat and do not harm animals.
- Five pungent vegetables include garlic (bad for the heart), red and white onions, and spring onions (bad for the kidneys), Chinese chives, which look like garlic (bad for the spleen), chives (bad for the liver), and tobacco leaves (bad for the lungs when smoked). Furthermore, any vegetables with a pungent smell should not be eaten during the vegetarian period.
- Milk, butter, oil and animal products
- Strong tasting food, whether it is very salty, very sweet, very sour or very spicy.
- Alcoholic beverages
- Those who are serious vegetarians should not eat food from containers shared with non-vegetarians and should only eat food cooked by other vegetarians.
What can you eat during the Vegetarian Festival?
- Tea and coffee without milk, butter or creamer
- Vitamin supplement tablets that do not contain animal extracts
- Crunchy snacks that are free of animal ingredients
- Pepper is a herb (but if you find it too strong, you can avoid it).
- Bread (vegan or non-dairy bread)
- Mama or instant noodles (vegan only)
- Put on make-up and spray perfume (for those who observe the 5 precepts, but those who observe the 8 precepts cannot do so)
During the Vegetarian Festival, you can eat these foods, but they are not recommended.
- Soft drinks (not prohibited, but too high in sugar)
- MSG (although it is made from cassava and sugarcane molasses, other seasonings often contain meat)
- Chocolate (mostly milk, but 100% dark chocolate is fine, but rare)
Even though eating vegetarian food may seem difficult for meat-eaters, we believe that if you try eating vegetarian food, in addition to your health improving immediately, you will also feel full of merit and joy from observing the precepts. And if you exercise regularly, you will also have good skin and a perfect figure. For those who have never tried eating vegetarian food, this is your first year. We guarantee that you will be so impressed that you will not want to stop eating vegetarian food.