In 1994, fifty years after the founding of The Vegan Society, Louise Wallis – who was Chair of the organisation, proposed November the 1st as a day for the vegan movement’s celebration. What’s more, the day would also be an opportunity to pay tribute to the Vegan Society’s founding members, who established the institution in November 1944.
According to The Vegan Society’s records, towards the end of World War Two, Donald Watson, Elsie Shrigley and four others met at the Attic Club in Holborn, London to discuss the founding of a new organisation. Donald Watson came up with its name after deriving the first three and last two letters from the word ‘vegetarian’, and so ‘The Vegan Society’ was created!
The day is the perfect opportunity for vegans to showcase their lifestyle and perhaps inspire more people to adopt a plant-based diet and a cruelty-free lifestyle. It subsequently marks the start of World Vegan Month – a month full of online and offline events, workshops, cooking demos, markets, and more.
A few things to do on World Vegan Day:
- You can take the challenge and go vegan for seven days by signing up for Viva!’s 7-Day Vegan recipe plans.
- Join Animal Justice Project on Facebook for five hours of activism discussions, sanctuary stories, a big raffle and a secret action that will be revealed on the day.
- Support vegan businesses on the World Vegan Month Virtual Market on Facebook.
- Join Viva!’s live premiere of their ‘End of Factory Farming’ short film and discussion, (see below):
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsJoin us for the live exclusive premiere of our #EndFactoryFarming short film followed by a Q&A with Juliet Gellatley on #WorldVeganDay 🌱❌
— Viva! (@vivacampaigns) October 23, 2020
WHEN: Sunday 1 Nov, 7pm
WHERE: Zoom – click attending to receive the link before the event 👇https://t.co/wELXNOEG4V pic.twitter.com/OaNsyfO3ED
- Check out the free event below about the benefits of plant-based diets:
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFree Event! Learn more about the benefits of plant-based diets with Lifestyle Physician Dr. Ashwani Garg. Join us online or in-person this special World #Vegan Day Presentation, featuring a Q&A with Dr. Garg! Sign up here: #worldvegandayhttps://t.co/wUAYFXmXXj
— Ashwani🌱Garg 🇺🇸 ☯禅☸️ 🌏☮️🇮🇳 (@agargmd) October 23, 2020
- Another online event is the 3-day India’s first virtual networking which will be running from the 30th of October to the 1st of November 2020, (see below).
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I think the words of the late Donald Watson in his fascinating interview with George D. Rodger in December 2002 for The Vegan Society sums up what the day, the month, and the future can look like in a vegan world:
“I doubt if anyone really knows how our digestion works. They might think they know, but the whole thing is so wonderful, that food can be converted into flesh and blood, bone and hair, as well as energy, mental processes, and even into spiritual enlightenment, that science has hardly got round to accepting as a possibility. We don’t know the spiritual advancements that long term veganism – I mean not over years or even decades, but over generations, would have on human life. It would be certainly a different civilisation, and the first one in the whole of our history that would truly deserve the title of being a civilisation. Full stop.”
Sustainable Lifestyle Hub 