People resort to macabre rituals.
Festival of the Nine Imperial gods is a nine-day Taoist event, held every year in Southeast Asia in the ninth month of the lunar calendar. In Thailand, for example, it is also called “TetraCon kin Che (Tesagan Gin Je), or the Vegetarian festival.
According to the legend of the festival, once the Chinese captured these lands, they began to die from the merciless epidemic. But after switching to a vegetarian diet and praying to the nine gods of the people were miraculously healed.
In the modern ceremony people go on a vegetarian diet and strictly adhere to the 10 principles of the festival. Among them is the abstinence from carnal pleasures, and alcohol, and also a rule to wear only white.
In addition, the festival is famous for its practice of piercing the body with sharp objects. Photographer Giselle Nastasia on my photographs captured the so-called “masons” (masong) people who pierce their cheeks, tongues and other body parts.
The essence of ritual is that by such action members allegedly invited the spirits of the nine gods to possess their bodies.
Legend says that spike the body helps people to find peace and calm in your mind and also to have great health. It is believed that these actions make the sins community sins of specific people. Perhaps this is enough altruistic actions.
