Vegetarian Festival

Today I would like to share the story of the annual festival in which I participate every year. The festival is called "Vegetarian Festival" or in Thai "Tesakan Gin Jae" which held in October each year.

The Vegetarian Festival is observed nationwide on a grand scale. The most famous place holding this festival is absolutely Phuket province where the most spectacular event takes place yearly. In other provinces such as Trang, Songkhla (Hat Yai) and Chon Buri (Pattaya), people of the Chinese descendants keep this festivals commonly.

The festival occurs yearly during the period from the 1st to the 9th of the 9th Chinese lunar month, which corresponds to 11-19 October. During this time almost all food shops and restaurants will fly yellow flags signifying that vegetarian food is available there. It is so convenient to have vegetarian meals during this time.

In recent years, the Vegetarian Festival has become more popular and has been increasingly observed by young people. This is so because of the belief that the observers will have better health and the purer mind and gain merits from taking vegetarian foods. This aspect, though being the main purpose of this festival, is less mentioned than the spectacular processions.

There are several interesting perspectives of the festival.

Name -- The full name of the festival is "Observe the Ten Commandments and Abstain from Meat".

Period -- The festival normally lasts for nine days from the 1st to the 9th of the 9th Chinese lunar month, as mentioned above.

Food -- People observing the festival should abstain from eating meat, animal oil and five pungent-odour vegetables, viz. garlic, onion, Chinese chives, garlic chives and tobacco. The vegetarians can have their vegetarian meals either at home or at a Chinese temple nearby.

Religious rites -- Rites are performed at the Chinese temples at various dates and times. The details will be given by the organizers beforehand.

As my Chinese tradition, I have to participate in this festival every year wiht no exception. When I was a child, I didn't like this festival that much because I was not allowed to eat any meat but I wanted to eat it so bad. However, as I grew up, I know that meat is no good for my body. I learn to love this festival and I enjoy eating vegetarian food especially mushroom and tofu. It just only 9 days a year, I can do it. Why can't you?

Thank you for the information from http://foodforhealthguide.blogspot.com/2010/09/vegetarian-festival-meritorious.html

Coconut water.....Juice for us.

Dear all,

Today, I like to tell everyone about the benefit of coconut water. I believed everyone used to drink coconut water. Coconut water is very popular in many countries and suitable for every one, every ages. Coconut water can make you have a healthy skin, due to coconut water is a good source of plant hormones called cytokinins. These plant hormones may have an anti-aging effect on human cells, keeping them smooth, full and young-looking instead of becoming misshapen and sagging. When applied directly to your skin, cytokinins in coconut water may act on the connective tissue in your skin to keep its youthful elasticity, eliminating dry skin and age-related wrinkling. Even drinking coconut water can have an anti-aging effect on your body, including your skin, from the inside out.

I Should Not Have Eaten It.

Hi friends,

How are you? Hope you are fine.

I am not well  this weekend. I am going to tell you why…

On Friday, I found a cup of yogurt left in my fridge. Then, I looked at the lid of yogurt to see the expired date, and it was the 23 August 2012. I thought it was all right because it was airtight sealed, just 7 days ago expiration and the colour of yogurt was not changed! As I was hungry, I opened it up and ate it, despite that I knew it smelt strange.

On Saturday morning, I got diarrhea and really wanted to vomit. That yogurt costs Bt. 15.00, but I had to pay for some anti-diarrhea tablets and mineral salt, which cost me more than the yogurt’s price. Oh what a shame!

I am getting better now. I have learnt that I have to be aware of the expiration date, not only for yogurt, but every food product.

Just I want to tell you: when yogurt goes bad, it has rancid smell (unpleasant smell). Although you might not see some mold or fungus visibly, you should not eat around it. If you eat it, you might get such a tummy upset like me.

Have a good day!