World Vegetarian Day 2023

Every year thousands of people decide to stop eating meat and start a vegetarian diet. This trend is becoming more and more popular nowadays – approximately 10% of the world’s population is vegetarian. However, as it is estimated, humans still consume more than 80 billion animals every year. In order to encourage more people to try vegetarian diet and highlight its benefits, World Vegetarian Day is being annually observed around the world.

The date of the observance is October 1, but it also initiates the whole month of October as Vegetarian Awareness Month. World Vegetarian Day is celebrated every year since 1977, when the North American Vegetarian Society founded it. It was endorsed one year later by the International Vegetarian Union. The aim of the day is to promote vegetarian diet as a healthy and non-violent lifestyle that has many ethical, environmental, health and humanitarian benefits.

It is also worth noting that there are at least few different types of a vegetarian diet. There are vegetarians that do eat eggs or milk, but exclude other animal products. Some allow themselves to eat fish, while others don’t. Some vegetarians only eat raw products. Vegans, however, abstain from anything that might include any type of animal products – even animal tested cosmetics. Fruitarians, on the other hand, only consume fruits and nuts. It all depends on the conscience. Everyone can choose what is best for them. The main idea, however, remains: save animals from suffering.

Not only vegetarians can celebrate World Vegetarian Day. It is a great opportunity for everyone to try vegetarian diet for at least this one day, or the whole month of October, and see if it is really as beneficial as it is said to be. It can even turn out to be really delicious. Try new restaurants, plant-based dishes, take your friends with you. Each of us can make a difference by informing or encouraging others to give vegetarian diet a try. Many restaurants only offer vegetarian dishes on October 1. Many schools join the observance by teaching the pupils how to prepare healthy, vegetarian meals. Each October 1 many people post important information about it in their social media. Their goal is to inform other people that vegetarian diet helps to save animals, or even the whole planet; reduces the risk of various serious diseases, or conserves many precious resources.

Did you know?

In many countries, vegetarian lifestyle is strongly connected with religion. Eating meat and other animal-related products is forbidden for example in various sects of Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism. All of these restrictions result from the non-violent and compassionate philosophy. For this reason, India has the lowest per capita meat consumption in the world.