Thaipusam in Singapore

Thaipusam is one of the festivals in Singapore that I read about before moving here. I wanted to go, but never knew when it occurs. Thank goodness for my friend Danielle. She's got some kind of radar for this stuff. So she called me up and asked me to go with her. Heck yes I did!

What is Thaipusam? I still don't know. I even looked it up. I did gather that it's a Hindu holiday and it has something to do with carrying a burden to honor one of their peeps. So they pierce their bodies and carry these huge decorative cage thingys which are also pierced into their skin and walk a considerable distance. This is symbolic of their burden they carry for whoever they carry it for. It's pretty hard core. And here I thought giving up chocolate for Lent was torture.

Check this out:


They'll even pierce their faces and tongues with decorative metal stuff.

And in case you were skeptical like I was, check out this guy.
See those bars going through his man pooch at the bottom? Yep, they're really in there.
Here's a back view just to give my sister even more dry heaves. :)

Yeah, it's pretty intense. We saw about 15 of these guys and we were only there for an hour. According to our cab driver with horribly broken English, they start this shiz the night before and do it all day long.

This guy was having some issues with his poker things. They may have been puncturing something important. I'm not sure, but they stopped and starting throwing some scented oil on him and chanting as this guy fixed his prods.

So it was a frickin' hot day and I got sunburned, but I have to send a thank you to Danielle for asking me to come out. It was way cool to see and glad I was there to experience it. Also, thanks for lending me some of your pics. You are a way better and more dedicated photographer than I am.

Oh yeah! Here's a quick video of the Thaipusam "parade" that I took because I'm awesome.