All throughout the year, there seem to be dozens of holidays dedicated to meat. January is National Meat Month, May is National BBQ Meat (which typically means barbecuing meat), and May is also National Hamburger Month. So there are plenty of holidays celebrating the consumption of animal flesh.

Unfortunately, there weren’t a whole lot of months dedicated to vegetarianism—at least not until now. Now October has been turned into Vegetarian Month. It’s the perfect month for people to celebrate their meat-free diet. It’s also the perfect month for people thinking about becoming a vegetarian to actually give it a try.

The History Of Vegetarian Month

This month was first created during the 1970s as World Vegetarian Day. It was first established in 1977 by the North American Vegetarian Society and has been celebrated every October every year.

It’s been a unique meat-free month, but then November was turned into Vegan Month. Now there are two back-to-back months dedicated to abstaining from meat products, although they do it differently.

Vegetarians exclude meat, poultry, seafood, and fish from their diet, but some vegetarians may consume dairy products such as cheese, milk, or eggs. On the other hand, vegans exclude all meat and animal products from their diets — including cheese, milk, and eggs.

Fun Facts About Vegetarianism

We thought that we’d include a section on vegetarianism facts that we think everyone will appreciate. We uncovered the following facts while we were doing research on the subject. We think that it rounds out this article nicely and gives our readers a better idea of what makes vegetarianism something worth checking out.

• Approximately 80% of food poisoning cases are due to eating spoiled meat or meat products.
• A vegetarian diet leads to lower levels of obesity, reduced risk of heart disease, and lower blood pressure readings.
• The average American eats over 223 pounds of meat, and that doesn’t even include seafood.
• Studies have shown that a vegetarian diet could feed more people worldwide than meat-based diets.
• There are more vegetarians in India than anywhere else in the world.
• It’s been estimated that 70% of the world’s vegetarians live in India.

Observing Vegetarian Month

This is the perfect month for people to celebrate their veganism or to introduce someone else to their vegetarian lifestyle. It’s also a good month to share vegetarian recipes online using the hashtag #VegetarianMonth.

And for everyone who has been thinking about changing to a vegetarian diet but hasn’t made the plunge yet, this is the perfect month for people to try it out for the first month.