Je Festival: Thailand’s 9-Day Spiritual Vegan Celebration

This is the best time of year to be in the Kingdom!

Delicious vegan food for sale during Je Fest at Market Village in Hua Hin. All photos are by the author unless otherwise specified.

Every year in the fall, there’s a nine-day vegan festival called the “Je Festival” or “Vegetarian Festival.” Even though it’s referred to as a vegetarian festival, all Je Fest food is vegan. The word vegetarian is used interchangeably with vegan in many parts of Asia.

In Thai, je means vegan, but also includes avoiding pungent vegetables like garlic and onions.

This spiritual festival originated in the popular tourist island of Phuket and has Taoist origins. Thailand Now notes that the festival dates back to 1825, when a Chinese opera troupe visited the island and became very ill.

“In a desperate attempt to protect its members, the rest of the group maintained an exclusively vegan diet out of respect to the Nine Emperor Gods of Taoism, thought to have the power to heal illnesses. Whether by coincidence or divine veganism, the Chinese opera troupe recovered and the rest is history,” the article states.

For those who practice Chinese Buddhism, as many do in Thailand, this festival is a time for cleansing and purifying their spirit. In addition to abstaining from eating all animal products, including eggs and dairy, devotees also avoid pungent vegetables, alcohol, and sex and wear white clothes.

In Phuket and Krabi, the rituals are more intense, with some devotees piercing their faces with long needles, hooks, and swords, and even walking on knife ladders. This serves as a purification ritual, and as an article by the BBC explains, to “take on the sins of the community.”

A devotee parades down the streets of Phuket with skewers through his mouth. Photo by Maksim Romashkin via Pexels.

The dates change every year since it occurs on the 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. This year, it will be from October 20th to October 29th.

A je food festival at Bluport Mall in Hua Hin.

The Best Time of Year

This is the best time of year to be in Thailand because markets, convenience stores, malls, restaurants, and food stalls serve special vegan food.

Many vegan and plant-based companies also tend to launch new products. In certain parts of the country, vegan food is literally everywhere you look. It’s vegan heaven!

Vegan refrigerated section at Tops Supermarket.

It’s easy to tell which businesses are serving vegan food because the stores and food stalls are decorated with bright yellow flags with the word “je” written in Thai or Chinese. You can spot them from far away. Markets and bakeries will set up je food displays to make their vegan options easier to find.

Je flags in front of a Japanese restaurant in Hua Hin advertise their vegan menu.

The packaging on vegan products are marked with the bright yellow and red je symbols. Even during the rest of the year, all Thai vegan food products have je labels. You just see it more often during Je Fest.

Festival goers parade down the street during the Vegetarian Festival in Phuket. Photo by Maksim Romashkin via Pexels.

The Best Places to Celebrate the Vegetarian Festival

Phuket and Krabi are the best places to experience the spiritual aspects of the festival because there are unique rituals and celebrations that you can’t see anywhere else in Thailand.

Tourists are welcome to observe the celebrations and take photos and videos. It’s a big tourist draw, especially in Phuket. Not many people know that they can see the same rituals in Krabi too. So if you want smaller crowds and a much cheaper trip, go to to Krabi.

To be respectful, you can wear all white during the festivities, but you don’t have to. Just make sure you follow the modest dress code before entering any temples.

You can easily find vegan food at restaurants and food stalls where the main celebrations take place. Thai je food tends to be the same in every restaurant and includes a lot of fried food, such as fried noodles, spring rolls, tofu, fritters, and sausages, but also includes a variety of soups, stir fries and curries.

Typical je fest food. You’re supposed to dip the fried food in sweet and spicy chili sauce. It’s so good!

To get bombarded with vegan options during Je Fest, Bangkok is the best place to be. Yaowarat Road in Chinatown has a large street food festival. You can watch the parades and observe the merit-making ceremonies at and around the Chinese Buddhist temples. Soi 20 in Charoen Krung Road is where most of the festivities take place. It’s a great area to wander around.

There are over a hundred all-vegan restaurants in Bangkok, and many of them will have a special menu for Je Fest. Most shopping malls, especially the larger ones like Icon Siam, Central World, and Siam Paragon, will have a vegan food festival at the food courts.

The Je Fest Food Festivals at Central World and Icon Siam are huge and have a larger variety of food compared to the typical fried street food you’d find in Chinatown and Phuket.

A lot of restaurants that normally don’t serve vegan food will have a special je menu, especially at the malls.

Je menu at MK, a hot pot chain restaurant.

Supermarket and convenience store chains will also serve special vegan food during this time. They tend to sell vegan baked goods like croissants, pastries, and bread, but also sell vegan ramen, snacks, protein, and instant meals.

A lovely vegan baked goods section at a 7–11 in Bangkok.

I love the vegan pineapple pastries and raisin bread from 7–11. I wish they sold it all year. 7–11 also has a good selection of vegan instant ramen, plant-based milk, and prepackaged meals.

The vegan section at a 7–11 in Hua Hin. The vegan ramen sells out quickly.

I live in Hua Hin, which has more limited vegan options than Bangkok. It’s the only time of year when I can eat vegan donuts and croissants, so I try to buy as many from Tops Supermarket as I can. They sell out fast!

Hua Hin celebrates the festival on a smaller scale. This beach resort town is a four-hour drive from Bangkok and is a popular holiday getaway for Thai families and older expats. It’s very chill. Even during high season, it’s not too crowded. I love it here.

During Je Fest, the Hua Hin Day market has lots of vegan street food. My favorite local restaurant, Ruen Thong Vegetarian, which is right across from the Day Market, extends their hours and expands their menu. It’s their busiest time of year.

A je fest stall at the Hua Hin Day Market.

Market Village Mall always has a large vegan food festival at the food court with lots of delicious Thai food. Bluport Mall had a great festival the first two years I lived here, but last year, their food festival was just a sad table with cold food. Hopefully, it’s better this year.

An assortment of decadent vegan cake on display at a bakery in Bangkok.

Downside of Je Fest

I always get depressed during the last days of the Vegetarian Festival because I wish veganism were celebrated every day. I miss seeing vegan food everywhere. There are still a lot of vegan options in Thailand, but the dial is turned up to 100 during the festival. It’s easy to feel spoiled as a vegan during this time.

The upside is that some vegan products end up staying all year round, with more vegan options popping up at the supermarket all the time. The supermarkets near me just started stocking vegan mayonnaise, so I’m really excited about that.

This month, I’ll be posting photos and videos during Veggie Fest, so stay tuned! Even though the festival doesn’t officially start until October 20th, the stores and supermarkets here will start selling je food earlier than that. I’m dying for some vegan donuts!

Have you heard of this festival before?

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