Forty Shrines, One Glowing First: Phuket Just Held Its First-Ever Night Procession

At eight o'clock on Sunday night, 11 October 2026, the sea breeze off Saphan Hin carried the first sparks of something Phuket had never seen before: forty shrines setting out together through Phuket Town in the island's first-ever nighttime deity procession [ref:4]. Gilded palanquins lifted off their stands, lanterns swung on their poles, and a tradition that is centuries old quietly gained a brand-new chapter.

Known locally as the Mae Si Iw Keng — a procession held under lantern light rather than the afternoon sun — the event was organised by the Phuket Shrine Association as a new addition to this year's Vegetarian Festival, turning the old town into a slow river of white-clad devotees, glowing paper lamps and firecracker echoes [ref:4]. It arrived on a weekend when the festival expects more than 140,000 visitors and around THB 1.4 billion in local spending [ref:1] — but no photograph of this particular night existed in any previous year.

A first in the festival's long memory

The Vegetarian Festival — Jia Chai to Phuket's Hokkien Chinese community — runs from the first to the ninth night of the waxing moon each year, and this edition opened with the Go Teng pole-raising at exactly 17:09 on 9 October, followed by nine days of vegetarian observance across more than forty shrines [ref:1][ref:2]. Street processions, the Iw Keng, have always been daytime affairs. What changed this year is that the Phuket Shrine Association gave the deities the night: contingents from forty shrines gathered at Saphan Hin from 8pm and moved together through the municipal area, with organisers inviting everyone to wear white, the traditional colour of purity [ref:4].

Earlier the same Sunday, the Hun Jong Aam Jo Su Kong Naka Shrine in Wichit had already carried its deities along Chao Fa West Road, past Wat Naka and down Wirat Hong Yok Road to the tip of Saphan Hin, where participants performed a ritual to gather sacred incense smoke before walking back into Phuket Town [ref:3]. Families set up tables outside their homes to offer prayers as the flags and palanquins passed — a gesture residents consider a blessing for the whole community [ref:3].

How Phuket sets the night aglow

Look closely at any Iw Keng and you are reading a vocabulary of craft. Tai Pia palanquins carry the deity images, shaded by Niu Siu ceremonial umbrellas, while the largest palanquin of all — the Tua Lian — carries Kiu Ong Tai Te, one of the Nine Emperor Gods at the heart of the festival [ref:3]. Under lantern light, every gold-leafed surface doubled its glow, and the usually busy streets slowed to the pace of the bearers' steps.

The night procession also fits neatly into a festival calendar already full of quiet wonders: the Koi Han bridge-crossing ritual, associated with cleansing misfortune, and the Koi Hoi fire-walking, observed as an act of spiritual purification [ref:2]. Thailand formally registered the Phuket Vegetarian Festival as intangible cultural heritage in 2018, and each new generation adds its own line to it [ref:2].

The week still ahead

The glow is not finished. On Monday 12 October, the Guan Te Kun Shrine in Koh Kaew holds its own Iw Keng procession through to Phuket Town [ref:3]. On Friday 16 October from 6am to noon, the TAT Phuket Office sets up a ceremonial reception table outside its office to welcome the procession from Jui Tui Shrine — a good spot for visitors who want to watch local participation up close [ref:2]. And on Sunday 18 October, the festival closes with farewell rituals for the Jade Emperor and the Nine Emperor Gods: the Jade Emperor is traditionally sent back to heaven at around 22:30, with crowds gathering along Thalang Road, Phuket Road and Surin Circle [ref:2].

If you are anywhere near the Andaman coast this week, wear something white, follow the lanterns, and keep your eyes open after dark. You will be watching the very first year of a tradition that Phuket will likely be repeating for decades — and you will be able to say you were there when the deities first walked by night.