Phuket's Vegetarian Festival perhaps ranks among the strangest in the world. Held over nine days in October, the spectacular Taoist festival celebrates the Chinese community's belief that abstinence from meat and stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain a healthy body and mind. The part of the festival that attracts most notoriety is a ritual where religious devotees perform mutilations while in a trance-like state, including piercing their faces and other parts of their bodies with metal objects.