Face facts: How not to hold your knife as the Phuket Vegetarian Festival makes its point

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By CHRIS LEADBEATER

Blade runner: A participant in the Phuket Vegetarian Festival finds an unusual use for his knife collection


It is one of the first parental lessons you are taught as a young child. Sit up straight at the table, hold your knife and fork correctly, don’t play with your food. And definitely – definitely – don’t pierce your cheeks with the cutlery and push a spoon through the hole.

However, they do things a little differently in Thailand – as these images of the latest Phuket Vegetarian Festival demonstrate.

This annual nine-day event (which runs until October 16th) sees participants put themselves through a series of often painful trials.


As well as thrusting metal implements into their faces, the hardy souls involved walk on heated coals, take baths in hot oil and – perhaps most unnerving of all – climb ladders with rungs made of blades rather than wood.


Big event: The Festival sees parades and fireworks as well as displays of self-mutilation


But there is a serious side to proceedings beyond mere masochism.

The festival is supposed to be a programme of self-cleansing. Aside from their unusual antics with pointed pieces of metal, participants agree to give up alcohol, sex and – as the name suggests – meat for the duration of the event.

The festival’s origins are almost as odd as its unusual rituals.

It dates back to 1825, and the visit of a travelling Chinese theatre company to the Thai mining town of Get-Hoe.


Loud and proud: Devotees also detonate fire-crackers to dispel evil spirits


When the touring actors succumbed to tropical fever in the jungle-clad region, they opted to keep to a strict vegetarian diet, hoping that this would please the gods – who would then relieve them of the illness.

The plan worked – and whether or not the thespians’ improved health was down to better diet than celestial intervention – the festival was born.


Making a point: Devotees believe their painful trials bring good luck to those around them


Almost two centuries on, the face-piercing and mutilation are sacred rites that participants submit themselves to in a bid to cleanse themselves and their neighbours.

Devotees believe that they are entered by divine spirits during the festival. The possession gives them supernatural powers – and the ability to endure these excruciating tortures for the common good.

Their suffering – they hope – draws evil out of the community around them and, in doing so, brings positive luck to their friends and village.


Skewered: The nine-day festival runs until October 16


Happily for those who don’t wish to put themselves through something that will require heavy reconstructive surgery once the party is over, there are other ways to scare off dark powers.

The firework displays that take place during the festival – including the loudest and biggest, which rounds off matters on the final night – are also deemed to fend off evil spirits through sheer force of noise.


*** Click to watch vdo ****



source :dailymail [endtext]

New York on storm alert as Hurricane Earl moves north from Carolina coast

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By Mail Foreign Service

Putting on a brave face: The Wood and Rollins families say they will ride out the storm in this rented beach house in Avon, North Carolina


Tourists heading to the Big Apple this weekend could find themselves on the receiving end of Hurricane Earl.

The storm, downgraded from a Category Four to a Category 2 hurricane, battered North Carolina overnight forcing 100,000 people, many of them tourists, to evacuate the region.

Gusting winds, pounding surf and rain took a swipe at the U.S. East Coast on an offshore path towards New England and Canada. By 11pm local time last night, winds of 105 miles per hour were hitting the Carolina region.


Sign of the times: As motorists evacuate Hatteras Island in North Carolina, one person had time to leave Hurricane Earl a not-so-welcome message


Preparation: The path the hurricane is expected to take and (inset) workers prepare a house for a battering


The storm, which is now larger than California, had been downgraded from a monstrous Category 4 earlier in the evening. More than 100,000 people have been evacuated from North Carolina.

Up to 26million people could be affected as the storm pummels the East Coast just in time for Labour Day weekend.

But, though weaker, Earl - which is passing east of North Carolina's Outer Banks islands that jut into the Atlantic, parallel to the coast - is still packing a dangerous punch


Hurricane chaser: Carolyn Butler, a computer scientist, studies information about Hurricane Earl on board the NASA aircraft that is following the storm


Leaving nothing behind: Mobile homes in Westport, Massachusetts are driven to safety


Time to go: Motorists are backed up along Route 12 as they leave the North Carolina coastline


Watching and waiting: Eight-year-olds Morgan Langley (right) and Stephen Lee watch the high surf caused approaching hurricane Earl


Hurricane-force winds of 74 mph or more extend 70 miles from its centre.

Tropical storm-force winds of at least 35 mph reach more than 200 miles out. The sheer size of the storm means that even though it is not striking the U.S. directly, it is still causing damage.

In anticipation of the high winds and 30ft waves that will flood homes, cause power cuts and delay flights, New York has issued a storm warning.

And homeowners all the way up to New Jersey and New York were boarding up their windows and preparing for evacuation.


Make way for Earl: Lifeguards at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina clear the beach in preparation for the storm


Flying into the eye of the storm: A NASA aircraft with a sensor used to measure data flies into Hurricane Earl to learn more about the storm


Waves of up to 20 feet have been recorded off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina - but so far storm surge along the coast has been limited.

The local tourism industry is already counting the cost of the storm's impact. Margo Metzger from North Carolina Tourism told TravelMail:'This weekend is what we call Labor Day weekend and it's one of the busiest. It’s a public holiday so it’s a long weekend in the US and its an unfortunate time because so many people are visiting the beach.'

In the coming days Boston will take a near direct hit before it continues through Maine to Canada.

The governors of Virginia and Maryland have also declared a state of emergency, handing control of planning and response to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Watches and warnings were posted along the Atlantic coast for North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine and parts of Canada's Nova Scotia and New Brunswick provinces.
By mid-afternoon, the storm will have reached New Jersey and New York before heading to Boston tonight.


Batten down the hatches: A carpenter installs wooden boards over windows and doors on Hatteras Island


Calm: An image from the NASA 'hurricane chaser' shows the eye of Hurricane Earl over the Atlantic


North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue said: 'We're ready. As ready as anybody can be.'

The timing coincides with Labour Day in the U.S. when millions were planning to travel to the coast for the long weekend that heralds the end of summer.

Earl's predicted path means the eye of the storm will be over the Atlantic, just 30 miles off the coast.

But the National Hurricane Centre has only been able to plot is path with what it calls a 'cone of uncertainty', meaning it could swing inland at any moment.

Earl was today downgraded to a Category Two storm, three less than the most serious, such as the deadly level five Katrina in 2005.

The last notable hurricane to hit the north-east coast was Hurricane Bob in 1991 which left 18 dead and £1.8billion of damage.

FEMA advised residents to have a disaster plan in place and heed evacuation orders. 'You need to make sure you know where to go when you need to go.'

In New York, the Red Cross is ready to open up shelters housing up to 60,000.


Centre of the storm: This satellite image from the International Space Station shows the swirls of heavy rain and high winds


Powerful: The category four hurricane was predicted to touch the North Carolina coast before moving out to sea, but forecasters say it could now hit the state, Long Island and even Boston


Fears: The hurricane has winds of up to 140mph and could cause widespread damage if it does hit land


Calm before the storm: Glorious weather in Hatteras Village the evening before Hurricane Earl was expected to hit and, right, one resident takes a light-hearted view of the storm






source: dailymail

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