We usually associate the practice of carrying kavadis – huge frames, usually made of metal, and often associated with skewering human flesh – with the festival of Thaipusam that is celebrated every year around February. However, there’s another lesser-known festival when the kavadis come out again, known as Panguni Uthiram. This year it was celebrated on 19 March, and Jerome was at the Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniar Temple at Yishun to observe the festivities.

Jerome sheds more light on the Panguni Uthiram festival:

Panguni Uthiram is celebrated in March or April in which the month of Panguni coincides with. Based on information from various sites, I understand that the full moon of the month is chosen as the star Uthiram and Pournami which is the full moon are seen together, and the festival commemorates the marriage of several deities which include Parvati and Parameshwaran, as well as Murugan and Deivanai. The Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniar Temple’s website also provides an indication of when the festival was first celebrated there, which was in 1967 during which six carried the Kavadi in honor of Lord Murugan who is also known as Sri Balasubramaniar. The temple has since moved (in 1996), to its current location in Yishun Industrial Park A, and the procession, which is preceeded on the eve of the full moon by a chariot procession during which a chariot, a representation of the chariot in which Sri Balasubramaniar is believed to use on his annual visit to his devotees on Earth, now takes place along Sembawang Road, close to the area where Sembawang Village was, down Canberra Link and on to the new temple site at Yishun, a distance of about one and a half kilometres.

Jeromes pictures of the beautiful daybreak celebration can be seen here.