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Summary People pierce their faces with different utensils as part of the annual body purification ceremony.
Participants in the Phuket Vegetarian Festival in Thailand pierce their faces with skewers, knives, drill bits, umbrellas and even model helicopters as a part of the annual body purification ceremony.Believed to have been celebrated by the citys Chinese community since 1825, the tradition started in the Kathu district, the home of many Chinese residents and shrines, according to a festival website.When members of a visiting Chinese opera troupe fell ill in Phuket amidst a deadly outbreak of disease, the performers realized they had failed to honor two Taoist gods on the first nine days of the ninth Chinese lunar month, according to lore.Every year since, Chinese residents of Phuket have held the Vegetarian Festival, abstaining from meat, alcohol and sex. Other festival guidelines include wearing white and keeping clean -especially when it comes to kitchen utensils, according to website’s list of 10 festival rules.
