Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thaipusam 2010
Thaipusam is a Hindu Festival celebrated in January or February (it falls on the full moon day in the Tamil month of Thai when the astrological star, Pusam, reigns). On this day, Goddess Parvathi gave her son Murugan the invincible vel (lance) to vanquish the evil asura (demons). Thus Thaipusam is a commemoration of the triumph of good over evil.
This year, about a million people converged on Malaysia's Batu Caves to observe the rites, and I was one of them. Most of the devotees had come to give thanks for blessings received. Many had asked for something in particular -- a child or the health of a family member, for example -- and had vowed to perform one of the Thaipusam devotions such as wearing a vel, bearing a kavadi (literally, "burden," such as a pitcher or jug) or carrying a milk pot offering up the 276 steps to the cave temple. Couples who had recently been blessed with a baby carried the infant in a saffron-colored sarong slung between sugarcane poles. As part of the ritual, some devotees had shaved their heads and those of their children, brought offerings of fruit and milk and bathed in the nearby Batu Caves river.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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