Every year, on the first evening of the ninth lunar moon, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival begins in Thailand, lasting nine days. Participants go to a Buddhist shrine and, while in a trance-like state, pierce their bodies in an attempt to shift evil spirits from others onto themselves and to bring good luck to the community. Some run across fire, while others climb up ladders made of blades. Most participants are male, and this year less than 20 injuries have been reported — most are due to piercings being cut too wide, Agence France-Presse reports. --Catherine Garcia
Iframe Code
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Sleaze baack!'Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
-
Quiz of The Week: 20 - 26 AprilPuzzles and Quizzes Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
Humza Yousaf clears the decks to battle no-confidence voteSpeed Read First minister is 'done', according to insider, but a single vote could change the balance
-
Puffed rice and yoga: inside the collapsed tunnel where Indian workers await rescueSpeed Read Workers trapped in collapsed tunnel are suffering from dysentery and anxiety over their rescue
-
More than 2,000 dead following massive earthquake in MoroccoSpeed Read
-
Mexico's next president will almost certainly be its 1st female presidentSpeed Read
-
North Korea's Kim to visit Putin in eastern Russia to discuss arms sales for Ukraine war, U.S. saysSpeed Read
-
Gabon's military leader sworn in following coup in latest African uprisingSpeed Read
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
