Thaipusam

Saturday we made our way back to a local observance of the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. The holiday celebrates both the birth of a Hindu god named Murugan and the time that god was given a spear to defeat a demon.

To show their devotion to this god people perform all sorts of offerings from carrying a milk bowl on their heads during a march of a few miles to some pretty extreme stuff. This year our pictures were a bit more of the close-up variety until ... well, we'll get to that later!

This particular guy has some stuff piercing his face and tongue. Ouch! But it gets better.
This fellow was carrying a thing twice as tall as he is all while being pierced more times than I can count (look at his tongue and forehead). Maybe I got this picture when he was mid-blink or super tired and maybe a bit more is going on. He does not look OK.
Same dude from the back. Unbelievable.
But maybe not as unbelievable as this guy with this huge skewer through both cheeks.
This guy totally freaked me out (I thought ... until the next guy) with his whole Charles Manson like presentation. The red paint? Too much. Mickey Mouse is the only thing that saves me on this one.
The last guy I saw. He carried this huge contraption for miles from one temple to another in the hopes of securing a blessing for his family in the coming year.

Turns out I know the guy in the white shirt and yellow skirt on the left. So I was asking him about the huge thing that was being carried and everything. Since I knew his family member, I was getting a little too "red carpet" with him and going all supermodel photographer when I took the picture below ...
Then the guy let out the crazy-sounding growl which was either him trying to say, "Someone tell him to STOP taking my picture" even though his tongue and cheeks were skewered. But it sounded a bit more darkly spiritual and I took it as a sign that it was not only a fine time to stop taking pictures but to head on home as well.

The lengths that people go to obtain forgiveness or favor or whatever is sadly in-your-face in a place where so few people have heard about how easy it is to be forgiven. Easy for us anyway. I am so glad Jesus was pierced for our transgressions so I won't be.