Tomorrow is the Nine Emperor Gods Festival

After a whole nine days of going on full strict vegetarian, devotees will see the culmination of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival tomorrow on Tuesday.

This festival which is held from the first day of the ninth lunar month until the ninth day of the ninth lunar month annually is in honour of the Nine Brother deities.

There are different versions to the origins of this festival and one of the more popular ones is that these nine brothers were like Robin Hoods who robbed the rich to help the poor. At least, that's what I heard.

It is believed that they will only get to come back to Earth for nine days each year and being strict vegetarians, those who pray to them will need to be on full vegetarian diets for the nine days. It seemed that devotees will receive more blessings if they go on the strict vegetarian diet. The vegetarian diet is so strict that all utensils used to cook the food must not have touched meat before and no garlic and onions are allowed to be used too. Even the forks and spoons and plates must be new or have not been used to serve meat before.


Also, devotees must wear light coloured clothing when going to the temples to offer their prayers during this period. Women who are menstruating are not allowed to enter the temples.

Whatever the believes, one thing is for sure. It will usually rain a lot during this period. As can be seen, the first day itself there was a heavy downpour causing flash floods in the state.

So, as is 'tradition' it will definitely rain during the street parade of the festival tomorrow (Oct 7) evening. It won't necessarily be heavy rain but will probably be some light drizzle around 7pm or 8pm.

So, if you are interested to check out the street parade which will promise quite a good show with some people going into trance (yes, and with piercing of the cheeks, tongue, whateva), do head on over to:

Junction of Hong Kong Street and Carnavon Street from 7pm onwards

Normally, the parade is to 'send off' the brothers back at the end of the festival. So, the parade will start off at Hong Kong Street and may pass through Burmah Road and then head to Gurney Drive to send the brothers off in a boat out to sea.