Thaipusam in Singapore

Thaipusam, one of the most spectacular festivals in Singapore and Malaysia. It's a South Indian festival, usually held in January or February (depending on the Tamil calendar), and in Singapore is celebrated by the local Hindu community, about 6% of the population. Thaipusam is devoted to the worship of Lord Muruga and is most visually characterised by the processions during which devotees carry huge shrines with sharp metal spikes and lots of hooks called kavadi, which pierce into their body. Some wear shoes of nails or pulled along heavy shrines with religious images and iconology through hooks pierced into their torso. There are also many who had sharp piercings through their face or fruits hanging from hooks pierced onto their chest. Through religious faith and trance, very little blood is shed and the devotees endure the pain to march a certain distance (4km in Singapore) as a sacrifice to the gods. Other devotees carry vessels of milk on their heads or shoulders to be presented to Lord Muruga at the end of the procession. Occasionally, some of the devotees would go through a sudden trance and had to be helped or restrained by their entourage. Some of them were full of tears and screaming at the top of their voices. An extraordinary show of intense emotion and religious devotion in a city that sometimes appears to be fairly coldly rational and non-traditional