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Bridge-Crossing Ritual at Kathu Shrine
Local culture
Free entry
Crowded
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Family
Sun, 18 October · from 19:30
Kathu time (UTC+7)
Kathu Shrine
Kathu
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Thailand · Phuket · Kathu
About the event
In the evening, a ritual bridge is set up at Kathu Shrine: devotees cross it to leave their misfortune behind, and at the far end a medium stamps the red seal of the Nine Emperor Gods on the back of their shirts. By custom people come in white and bring a paper figure cut to their own outline; the time follows TAT's schedule and may shift.
From the editors
Kathu Shrine is where, by tradition, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival began almost 200 years ago, brought by Chinese who came to work the tin mines. The Phuket Vegetarian Festival (Jia Chai) is the nine-day Taoist festival of the Nine Emperor Gods: those who keep it dress in white, give up meat and hold vows of purification, while 39 shrines across the island hold their own rites. Crossing the bridge is believed to cleanse a person of impurities and of misfortune that might come their way; the red seal on the back shows they have been purified.