January-February; three to 12 days in Hindu month of Magha
Thaipusam is a dramatic Hindu festival celebrated in India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, South Africa, Mauritius, and elsewhere. The day marks the birthday and victory of the Hindu god Subramaniam, also known as Lord Murugar, over the demons, and is a time of penance and consecration to the god, usually involving self-mortification in a test of mind over pain.
In Malaysia, the festival is a public holiday in the states of Perak, Penang, and Selangor. In Georgetown, Penang, a statue of Subramaniam—covered with gold, silver, diamonds, and emeralds—is taken from the Sri Mariamman temple along with his consorts, Valli and Theivanai, and placed in a silver chariot. Then begins a grand procession to his tomb in the Batu Caves, near the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, where the statue is carried up 272 steep steps, and placed beside the permanent statue kept there. The next day about 200,000 people begin to pay homage, while movies, carousels, and other entertainments are provided for their amusement.
The most intense form of penance and devotion is the carrying of kavadee —a wooden arch on a wooden platform—which the Tamil people of Mauritius practice in a unique way—much more elaborately and solemnly than in other countries. Devotees, both male and female, abstain from meat and sex during the sacred 10 days before the festival. Each day they go to the temple (kovil ) to make offerings, and in Port Louis, at Arulmigu Sockalingam Meenaatchee Amman Kovil, Murugar and his two consorts are decorated differently each day to depict episodes in the deity's life.
On the eve of the celebration, devotees prepare their kavadees and decorate them with flowers, paper, and peacock feathers. They may be built in other shapes, such as a peacock or temple, but the arch is most common. The next morning, priests pour cow milk into two brass pots and tie them to the sides of each kavadee. Fruits, or jagger (a coarse, brown sugar made from the East Indian palm tree), may also be placed on the platform. Then religious ceremonies are performed at the shrines to put the bearers in a trance. When ready, penitents have their upper bodies pierced symmetrically with vels, the sacred lance given to Lord Subramaniam by his mother, Parvati; some also have skewers driven through their cheeks, foreheads, or tongues.
The procession then begins, with the devotees carrying the kavadees on their shoulders. Some penitents draw a small chariot by means of chains fixed to hooks dug into their sides; some walk to the temple on sandals studded with nails. Groups of young men and women follow, singing rhythmic songs. Each region may have 40 to 100 kavadees, but in places like Port Louis there may be 600 to 800. At the temple, the kavadee is dismounted, the needles and skewers removed by the priest, and the milk in the pots—which has stayed pure—is poured over the deity from head to foot. The penitents then go out and join the crowds.
Some believe carrying the kavadee washes away sins through self-inflicted suffering; others say the kavadee symbolizes the triumph of good over evil.
In Durban, South Africa, these rites last 12 days and are also performed during Chitray Massum in April-May.
CONTACTS
Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board
818 W. 7th St., Ste. 970
Los Angeles, CA 90017
800-336-6842 or 213-689-9702; fax: 213-689-1530
www.visitmalaysia.com
Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority
Air Mauritius Centre, Fl. 11
5, President John Kennedy Street
Port Louis, Mauritius
230-210-1545; fax: 230-212-5142
www.mauritius.net
