Nửa đêm, ngày 10 tháng 10. Tiếng trống, khói hương và cả thành phố khoác lên mình sắc trắng — trong chín ngày, Phố cổ Phuket trở thành sân khấu lễ hội sôi động nhất Thái Lan. Đây là cách để bạn trải nghiệm trọn vẹn: ngày tổ chức, những cuộc diễu hành đáng để thức dậy sớm, món ăn nên thử, và nơi nghỉ ngơi khi tiếng pháo đã lắng xuống.
Nine days in white: what the festival actually is
The Phuket Vegetarian Festival — locals simply call it the Jay Festival — honours the Nine Emperor Gods of the island's Hokkien-Chinese community. The story goes back to the 1820s, when a visiting opera troupe fell ill in the tin-mining town of Kathu and recovered after committing to a strict vegetarian diet and Taoist rites. Phuket has kept the vow ever since: for nine days, devotees dress in white, shrines run day and night, and much of the island eats jay — food free of meat and pungent herbs. It is loud, smoky, deeply devout and unlike anything else on the Thai calendar.
Dates and key ceremonies, 10–18 October 2026
The 2026 festival runs from Saturday 10 October to Sunday 18 October, with the lantern-pole raising that formally invites the gods held at the main shrines on the eve of day one. The dates follow the lunar calendar — the ninth lunar month — which is why they shift every year.
- The opening. On the eve of the festival, each shrine raises its go teng lantern pole; around midnight into 10 October, the first invocation ceremonies begin at the island's oldest shrines, led by Jui Tui and Bang Neow near Old Town and the original shrine in Kathu.
- Procession mornings. Through the middle days, each major shrine takes a morning to parade through town. Every shrine publishes its own procession day — the full schedule is posted at the shrines and by the Phuket tourism offices in early October, so confirm the morning you plan around.
- The climax. The final night, 18 October, ends with the farewell to the gods at Saphan Hin park — a firecracker street storm that has to be experienced from a sensible distance to be believed.
