World Vegan Day: a day to commemorate and advocate for being vegan, a day to begin a journey into veganism or a day to do something else related to the lifestyle—ultimately, a day to celebrate any way one pleases.
Thursday, Nov. 1, marks World Vegan Day, and the kick-off of World Vegan Month. The annual event was established in 1994 by Louise Wallis, then-chair of The Vegan Society, to honor the 50th anniversary of the organization’s founding and the coining of the terms vegan and veganism, according to the International Organization for Animal Protection.
Before getting to ways that people, whether they’re vegan or not, can celebrate this upcoming World Vegan Day, recent successes in the vegan community need to be mentioned.
Reasons to Celebrate:
The main achievement that vegans and those who support the lifestyle can celebrate on World Vegan Day is the growth of veganism. Throughout the last few years, the vegan diet has considerably expanded in popularity, according to statistics published by Live Kindly:
· Demand for vegan food products in grocery stores around the world increased by 140 percent between 2016 and 2017.
· Demand for vegan and vegetarian food from restaurants and food delivery services increased by 987 percent worldwide in 2017.
· Forty percent of global consumers are now trying to include more vegan foods in every meal.
There is more interest in veganism than ever before—Google searches about the lifestyle quadrupled between 2012 and 2017, according to The Vegan Society, which provides the perfect cause for celebration.
How to Celebrate:
As mentioned earlier, people can choose to celebrate World Vegan Day any way that they wish, and they don’t have to be vegan to take part in celebratory activities.
Though large cities around the world offer conferences and lectures, food festivals, marches and cooking demonstrations in celebration, there are a number of smaller ways that people can take part.
For example, people can simply use vegan food to celebrate. If they’re already vegan, they can cook a new recipe they’ve been wanting to try, host a vegan lunch at work or share their vegan recipes with others online.
Those who aren’t vegan can still celebrate with food by trying out their first vegan restaurant or cooking a vegan recipe just to see how they like it.
Other activities that people can do to celebrate include donating to a vegan or animal rights organization, planting a fruit or vegetable plant that they can later eat from and further researching the origin of the veganism movement.
Also, those who are already vegan can challenge friends and family members to try veganism, and those who aren’t vegan can try removing animal products and by-products from their diets. Many pro-vegan organizations even offer ways to help people make the transition to veganism throughout November.
“World Vegan Day is a great opportunity for people to give veganism a try,” Rich Hardy, Head of Campaigns at Veganuary, said. “We run an internationally renowned pledge, that seeks to provide all the support anyone needs to trial a vegan diet for one month.”
As the vegan lifestyle continues to achieve significant growth and attention, vegans and non-vegans alike can celebrate World Vegan Day through completing any one of the activities discussed.
