World Vegan Day 2020

World Vegan Day is an annual event celebrated by vegans around the world every 1 November.

The benefits of veganism for humans and the natural environment are celebrated through activities such as setting up stalls, hosting potlucks, and planting memorial trees.

A vegan is a person who does not consume or use products derived from animals. A vegan diet contains only plant-based foods. People adopt veganism to avoid exploitation of animals.

Every year, The Vegan Society observes the World Vegan Day based on a specific theme.

However, the official theme for the World Vegan Day 2020 event hasn’t been decided yet. Also, themes of World Vegan Day are based on promoting and educating about veganism across the world. 

Perhaps one of the most common misunderstandings surrounding veganism is due to it being conflated with vegetarianism.The only commonality between the two is a shared avoidance of meat products. Both vegans and vegetarians categorically do not consume. However, the similarity ends here - to be vegan is to avoid all animal based products (meat is just one animal based product) - including dairy (milk, cheese, ghee, butter) and products like honey. This does not apply to vegetarians as many vegetarians in India have a heavy dairy inclusive diet.

Benefits of a Vegan diet:

It is said that a vegan diet is beneficial in keeping diseases like heart diseases, certain cancers, type two diabetes, arthritis and lung and kidney diseases at bay. Since a vegan diet is mainly plant-based, it is high in fiber and low in cholesterol. On World Vegan Day, vegan groups and practitioners organise workshops to highlight the importance of animal rights.

Each year there are a number of festivals and exhibitions held around the world by vegan societies. In addition, there are many local events, talks and cooking demonstrations organised by individuals.