The past few years have seen a steady growth in the number of people turning vegans. To celebrate how far veganism has come from its early days as a fringe lifestyle and dietary requirement, November 1 is observed as World vegan Day every year. Veganism as a lifestyle not only promotes animal welfare but also aims at environmental protection.
History of World Vegan Day
According to the information available, Donald Watson called a meeting of 5 other non-dairy vegetarians that he knew to discuss non-dairy vegetarian diets on November 1st, 1944. As such, they founded a new movement that would be eventually called the vegan lifestyle.
Over the years, they clarified the definition of their vegan diet and in 1979, it became a charity. In 1994, on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Vegan Society, Louise Wallis (who was chair of the society at the time) proposed a day to commemorate and promote the vegan lifestyle. Since then, World Vegan Day has been used to celebrate and promote the vegan lifestyle.
Significance of World Vegan Day
According to the vegan society, it is meant to highlight how easy it can be to go vegan. It is also aimed at education, by informing people of the benefits to the planet and their health a vegan lifestyle brings. On this day, people are encouraged to share vegan recipes, or even how to adapt a meat or vegetarian dish to be vegan.
It is marked in Europe, North America, Oceania, South America. The celebrations are marked with a weekend celebration. The Vegan Society observes it for an entire month. Vegan lunches and dinners are organised to commemorate throughout the month.
