VOICED: Extreme piercing for purity in Thai vegetarian festival

The video explores the Puckette Vegetarian Festival, a ritual involving extreme piercings and firewalking to honor the nine Chinese emperor gods. The festival, with a history of nearly 200 years, began when a Chinese opera group adopted a vegetarian diet to cure malaria. Devotees perform acts of self-mortification, believed to cleanse the community of bad luck. The festival includes parades with firecrackers, symbolizing purification.

What is the primary purpose of the Puckette's Vegetarian Festival?

• To celebrate the harvest season

• To cleanse sins and remove bad luck

• To honor the local government

• To promote vegetarianism worldwide

How did the Vegetarian Festival reportedly begin?

• A group of monks decided to fast

• A Chinese opera group adopted a vegetarian diet to cure malaria

• A local king declared a festival

• A natural disaster prompted a community gathering

What are followers required to abstain from during the festival?

• Travel and work

• Sex and alcohol

• Technology and communication

• Meat and dairy

What is one of the extreme rituals performed during the festival?

• Swimming across a river

• Walking over burning coals

• Dancing for 24 hours

• Climbing a mountain

What do the participants hope to achieve by performing these rituals?

• To gain personal wealth

• To win a competition

• To attract tourists

• To purify the entire neighborhood