More Thaipusam

Did we tell you there were lots of people at this festival on Saturday? I mean lots of people!
Of course like any cool festival there was lots of food. This is a great way to eat! Normally just called "banana leaf" because they take a section of banana leaf to use as a plate, load it up with rice, then spoon on some other vegetarian dishes. Advanced people just dig in with their hands. It is seriously tasty ... we'll be planning some for Todd and Maria next week. We want to see Re eat with her hands!!
A number of folks at the festival had this look which we didn't really understand. But thankfully a guy explained.
Festivals must have vendors, too. Its crazy that the more things change the more they stay the same.
So here is the deal with the orange heads. There is a sort of a barbershop set up and folks come by. The difference at this barbershop is they only use old-style straight razors. If you look closely you can see the woman on the right in the photo below with all her hair gone.
This is a friend I met who explained some of the reasoning behind their clean-shaven heads. He said that during the year people will pray for something: health, good test results, children, marriage, work, for example. If they get the thing they asked for then they will offer up their hair. Now that made me curious about why a deity would desire their hair.
But its not really about offering the hair he explained. Instead what they are offering is really their ego since, he says, its pretty humbling to have your head shaved. In a way they are confessing their neediness by cleaning their head.

Turns out the orange color is sandalwood which soothes the scalp after the cut. Most people were leaving it all on the floor, even their facial hair. I asked if he would be shaving his mustache and he said no. After finishing his hair, the barber went for his mustache and he told the guy he didn't want it shaved then looked at me and said, "Still too much ego."