Hindu devotees in Singapore celebrate Thaipusam
Devotees leave a temple in their kavadis during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Singapore on 9 February 2017. (PHOTO REUTERS/Edgar Su)
Hindu devotees in Singapore marked the annual festival of Thaipusam on Thursday (9 February) with an annual procession stretching from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Rood to the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple on Tank Road.
Many, both young and old, were seen bearing various forms of offerings along the 4km-long route. These ranged from milk pots to “kavadis”, which are structures made of steel or wood that can be carried on the body or pulled along in the form of a “chariot”. The process usually entails the kavadi-bearers having their bodies pierced with steel spears and hooks.
Thaipusam is mainly celebrated by Tamil communities around the world on the full moon during the Tamil month of Thai. The thanksgiving festival honours the Hindu deity Lord Murugan and is a day for devotees to celebrate the fulfillment of their vows.
Thaipusam 2017
Photographs taken at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple
Today’s Thaipusam, an annual Hindu festival celebrated in Singapore that being a most colourful of spectacles, is perhaps also a most photographed.
The festival sees a procession of kavadis – burdens carried by devotees of Lord Murugan – from the Sri Srinivas Perumal Temple at Serangoon Road to the Sri Thendayuthapani (Chettiars) Temple in Tank Road.
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