Women carrying pitchers of milk to the temple during the Thaipossam Cavadee ceremony.
Thaipoosam Cavadee
This Tamil festival is dedicated to Lord Muruga and symbolises the victory of good other evil. Believers prepare themselves during days of fast, prayers, and prepare “Cavadee”, an arch-shaped structure decorated with flowers, fruit, leaves and peacock feathers. In the morning of the celebration believers, dressed in fushia, the color of purity, make ablutions at a river, and get their tongue or cheeks pieced with a “vel”, a needle in the shape of a spear. Some decorate their body with fan-shape patterns of “vels”. Those who do not wear “vels” tie a scarf around their mouth as all are committed to silence. Then starts the procession to the temple: the devotees carry the “Cavadee” on their shoulders and some women hold brass pots of milk on their head.
Other photos of Thaipoosam Cavadee:
Ablutions
Pitchers of milk
Preparations
The brass pots
The vels
Cavadee
