[Seoul]
On October 1, 2000, a commemorative event honoring
World Vegetarian Day was held by the Korean Vegetarian Union at Marronnier
Park in Seoul. It was the first World Vegetarian Day event ever held
in Korea, and many related organizations co-hosted the activity to promote
vegetarianism.
Since
the vegetarian diet is not popular in Korea and there are few pure vegetarians
in the country, our fellow initiates participated actively and played
a key role in the event. We were joined by various organizations, such
as the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Korean Sahmyook Foods, Anti-Dog
Meat Movement Headquarters, Grain Zen Foods, the Korean Internet Vegetarian
Network, the SM Vegetarian Buffet (run by the Seoul Center), VegeLove
(also run by the Seoul Center) and VegeFood, Inc. (run by an initiate),
in order to introduce the benefits of vegetarianism.
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Angels
share vegetarianism in Korea: Work team and performance team members
take photos for the press.
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The
event's official one-hour ceremony was launched at 12:00 PM. The ceremony
consisted of a declaration of the Vegetarian Manifesto, a lecture on
vegetarianism, the sharing of experiences related to vegetarianism,
a poetry recitation, skits, choral singing and various other short performances.
Our fellow initiates performed a poetry recitation and a musical skit.
The skit won the biggest applause among all the acts because of the
comic play and happy songs of fellow initiates, who had been trained
through participation in previous international retreat performances.
The message of the skit was that all life should be respected. After
the skit was over, many people came to us and said that they were deeply
impressed, and members of one of the participating organizations even
invited us to perform at their own event.
When
the official ceremony was over, a free vegetarian food tasting was held.
Marronnier Park was soon fully occupied with people holding plates filled
with vegetarian fare. After the tasting party, the attendees marched
up to Myungdong Catholic Church, and once all the programs were completed,
the SM Vegetarian Buffet offered a sumptuous free dinner for participants,
and the Korean Vegetarian Union expressed its sincere thanks for our
great contribution.
