At a second preparatory meeting held at Phuket Provincial Hall, Vice Governor Samawit Suphanphai chaired discussions on safety, logistics and ceremonial details for the nine-day festival, which will take place from Oct 21-29.
Representatives from the Ministry of Culture, Phuket Provincial Police, Phuket City Municipality and the Phuket Shrine Association joined the session to review the draft order appointing the organising committee and to refine guidelines for the island-wide celebration.
The meeting confirmed that this year’s festival will again include the ‘Song Keng’ prayer ceremony to offer blessings to His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn, with the Phuket Shrine Association planning to hold the royal blessing exclusively at the central Saphan Hin stage. Agencies were asked to coordinate closely to ensure public safety and smooth operations throughout the festival period.
HONOURING THE GODS
Known locally as ‘Gin Jae’, or even ‘Jia Chai’, the Vegetarian Festival is rooted in Taoist beliefs honouring the Nine Emperor Gods.
According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the festival spans the first to ninth nights of the waxing moon, during which devotees maintain a strict vegetarian diet and observe rituals of purification.
Recognised by Thailand’s Ministry of Culture as an item of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018, the festival won the IFEA Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Award last year for its outstanding social and spiritual significance.
Nine principal shrines across Phuket will host prayers and rituals, each dedicated to different deities offering blessings ranging from good health and safe travel to business success and educational opportunity. Kathu Shrine, regarded as the spiritual heart of the festival, will lead key ceremonies, while other shrines including Jui Tui, Bang Liao and Sui Boon Tong will welcome thousands of devotees seeking the gods’ protection and favour.
STREET PROCESSIONS
The festival’s most dramatic displays will once again unfold on Phuket’s streets as spirit mediums in elaborate dress lead daily processions through the town. Bearing sacred emblems and accompanied by deafening firecrackers, the processions give residents the chance to receive blessings as the gods are carried past.
Other rituals include the ‘Ceremonial Bridge Crossing’, believed to cleanse participants of misfortune, ‘Fire Walking’ and the late-night farewell to send the Nine Emperor Gods back to heaven on the festival’s final evening.
Detailed schedules for each shrine’s ceremonies have been released, with highlights including the climactic farewell procession through Phuket Town to Saphan Hin in the early hours of Oct 29.
Residents and visitors are advised to check the official programme for exact times and to prepare for road closures and heavy crowds during the processions. (See the full official festival programme in the image gallery above.)
Phuket Vice Governor Samawit noted that with centuries of tradition, a rich spiritual heritage and a spectacle of colour, sound and devotion, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2025 promises once again to be a defining celebration of the island’s Chinese-Thai culture.