Thaipusam!

Last Saturday was the Hindu holiday of Thaipusam.  Ever since I heard about it several months ago, I have been looking forward to witnessing this holiday.  Why was I so excited for this?  Well, to celebrate Thaipusam, devotees pierce themselves with various hooks and spikes and then walk several miles in the hot Singapore sun.  Extreme!  Witnessing Thaipusam on Saturday was all that I had hoped for and more.  Here's one of many pictures that I took:

In trying to figure out the legends behind Thaipusam, I discovered that there are actually several different explanations for the holiday traditions.  Most agree that the festival celebrates the birthday of Murugan, a Hindu god that is especially popular with the Tamils of southern India (this group also makes up the majority of Indians in Singapore).  Wikipedia says that Thaipusam commemorates the creation of Murugan by Shiva to aid the Asura forces in their war again the Devas.  However, this website has many other possible back stories, including tales of hill-stealing, eavesdropping, and demons.  Sorry, I'm feeling lazy tonight, so if you want to read them all, just follow the link.

In Singapore, Thaipusam was celebrated with a procession between two of the main Hindu temples.  My friends and I visited the temple at the start of the procession to check out the festivities.  When we arrived in mid-morning, the temple was packed full of devotees and tourists.  Each devotee who was going to march in the procession had several helpers.  Anyone who is going to participate in the holiday has to undergo special purification rituals and fasting.  The large spiked cages are called kavadis and are held in place with lots of long spikes that are woven into the flesh.  Here you can see a helper weaving in the spikes:

Many of the kavadis were huge and incredibly ornate.  Apparently, a few years ago, some of them got so out of hand that they are now restricted to a certain height.

 Besides the kavadis, many devotees also wore bells, oranges, or jars of milk that were held on with spikes.  Here you can see them putting the bells on this man's legs:

Sometimes the kavadi-wearers had attendants that marched with them.  They mostly carried jars of milk on their heads. 

The craziest that we saw was this guy - he had a huge spike through both cheeks and was pulling an wheeled altar using huge hooks on his back!

Inside the temple, there was a festive atmosphere.  There were several different bands playing percussion and wind music.

There were also various shrines and altars set up, and a large area for serving food.

So, all in all a very interesting holiday!