The Ninth Lunar Vegetarian Festival is a much celebrated festival especially in Penang.
Believers observed strict vegetarianism for the entire period starting a day before the actual celebration. Staunch believers would only consume food that are marked or endorsed to be ‘legal’. Most restaurants and road-side stall will hang yellow cloth to assure would be customers that what they are serving is safe to eat. One way to be totally sure that the food is legal is to eat in an authentic vegetarian restaurant or stall.

Therefore for the whole ten days of the festival Than Hsiang Restaurant and Canteen was frequented not only by these once a year vegans but the regulars who took the opportunity to sample the great variety of food that were not only prepared by the regular cooks but also by many volunteers. In fact one would have to come daily so as not to miss the daily specials prepared especially for the charity sale. There were fried Bee-hoon, Hor-fun, fried Indian mee, Jawa mee, Assam Laksa, Laksa Lemak, Curry mee, Hokkien mee, Pasembor and various sweet desserts, local cakes and even vegan chocolate and suji loaves to name a few. The economy food counter was also laden with a variety of more than twelve dishes to go with white or brown rice.

Up in the multi-purpose hall in the fifth floor a sumptuous vegetarian buffet awaits the diners. Customers were pleasantly surprised by the variety of dishes offered out-numbered the promotion flyer which stated that it was an eight dish buffet with local specialities, desserts, fruits and drinks. There were more than 14 dishes served not counting rojak, the Malaysian salad, local hawker noodles, fruits and sweet desserts and drinks that were changed daily. What could one ask for more at RM12.00 per pax. In fact some concerned members of Than Hsiang Temple enquired if the restaurant would be running at a lost.

While at the ground floor in the multi-purpose lunch boxes were packed ready to be sent to the nearby factories. It was unfortunate that the festival coincides with the Hari Raya Puasa holidays therefore orders for packed lunch from some factories were reduced due to shut-down or long week-end. However the total of number of lunch boxes was not much different from that of last year as orders were taken from more factories and not only from selected ones.

The Mitra Welfare Centre held fort at Sunshine Square offering nasi lemak, western vegan cakes, cut fruits and meal boxes while at a shop belonging to a volunteer nearby Queens Bay Mall in return for loaned furniture and some other assistance offered to donate part of their total profit to the centre.

In Batu Lancang the Wan Ching Yuen Centre have set up a grand stall, a truly Malyasian hawker stall offering specialities prepared not only by local volunteers but by volunteers from as far north as Sungai Petani, Taiping and Kelantan. The nasi dagang from Kelantan is a die for while for those with a sweet tooth the ‘tong sui’ counter was tops.

The economy food counter offer an array of dishes ranging from the regular Chinese food to the special nyonya dishes and Kelantan rendang accompanied with white rice. Popular among the young ones were the nyonya roti and western burgers. There was also a stall offering different varieties of clear soup or spicy noodles daily.

The Ninth Lunar Month Vegetarian Festival Charity Sale ended well all round. The stall at Batu Lancang performed even better than last year although a local daily reported that there was a general drop of 20% in sales all round.

Success of the sale is not only measured by successfully meeting set targets but also by lessons learnt. Preparation for the charity sale gets underway weeks before the festival because simple as the sale may seem to the observer it is in fact quite a complex affair. Therefore adequate and systematic planning is necessary. Staff and volunteers followed the three stages of event execution in the true Buddhist spirit as taught by the abbot, Venerable Wei Wu, namely preliminaries/planning, execution and reflection.

At the close of the festival Venerable Wei Wu expressed his happiness in seeing the staff and volunteers were not only caring and sharing with each other but also working collectively as members of a big family. He said that although one is tired physically one should not be tired spiritually stressing the importance of spiritual cultivation. He wished everyone well and success in their spiritual development.