When tiny yellow flags fly across food markets, we know right away that the Chinese Vegetarian Festival, one of the grandest merit-making feast of ethnic Chinese, is back again, with something special for this year.

As a tribute to the King on his 80th birthday, eating vegetarian food will not only reduce the slaughter of livestock and accumulate merit, but will also give us opportunities to “Do good” for the Father of the Nation, and we can start with ourselves. All we need to do is to give up eating meat during the festival, turn to vegetables and fruit, observe religious precepts and give alms. Doing good in this way will result in a healthy body with righteous heart and mind, and will be a perfect gift for our Father on this auspicious occasion.

The Chinese Vegetarian Festival is scheduled according to the lunar system and lasts for 9 days 9 nights, which are generally different every year. Today, eating a vegetarian diet is not only a kind of merit making, but it also benefits the devotee’s health. Many vegetarian menus are bioorganic, and this helps to balance the system and drain toxins from the body naturally. The digestive system and blood circulation will be improved, which is all for own good, too, because keeping the body healthy is a basic form of merit making, too.

Apart from eating vegetarian food, mediation can be another form of merit making. Meditation is the cultivation of mind, enhancing us positive thoughts and purifying our hearts and minds. Good times for meditation are either morning or during the daytime because our mental energy is still fresh, unlike in the evening when we may be tired from a long day’s work. Besides, when looking at scientific effect, meditation requires us to sit up with a straight back, which naturally stretches the stomach and intestines and allows them to work more efficiently. A vegetarian diet and the practice of meditation will together benefit both the mind and the body.

For the 2007 Chinese Vegetarian Festival, Central Food Retail Company Limited (CFR), the management of Central Food Hall, Tops Market, Tops Super and Tops daily, is inviting Thai people to do good for the Father of the Nation. CFR’s Chinese Vegetarian Festival this year will be different from the previous years’ events, including such Interesting activities as Vowing to follow the Vegetarian Way for the Father, Group Meditation, discussions on ‘Eating Vegetarian, Doing Good for the Father’, and vows to do good written on postcards to be hung on the Ratchaphreuk tree. “Eating vegetarian food and observing religious precepts are good deeds that can be sent towards our beloved King, "said Central Food Retail’s Vice President Marketing and Public Relations, Phattaraporn Phenpraphat. "Right thinking, good actions and meditating to purify one’s heart are good deeds that reward those who do them, and benefit those around them. For this year’s Chinese Vegetarian Festival, CFR is hoping to encourage us all to do good deeds to celebrate one of our most auspicious years of the history.”