Hindu Thimithi (firewalking) festival

The third of the three Singapore festivals that is celebrated this time of year is Deepavali. I went on a great walking tour of Little India last Tuesday (post forthcoming) and learned alot about Hinduism and the Indian culture. Last Sunday night I went to my friend Sarah's house to sleep a bit before heading to the Thimithi/ firewalking festival, which started at 2 AM. Her husband and mother-in-law came as well and we met up with our friend Debbie at the festival. The firewalking festival originates in South India. From what I gathered reading a bit online Thimithi is not normally a part of Deepavali but is here in Singapore.

It took place at Sri Mariamman Temple, which is actually in Chinatown. I learned that night from Debbie the reason it is located there and not in Little India is to encourage religious tolerance. By law there has to be a certain percent of each ethic group in the different quarters or districts in Singapore. The religious and cultural tolerance here is definitely something Singapore does right. It would be nice if the rest of the world followed suit.
"The Thimithi Festival in Singapore is a major Hindu festival celebrated by the Hindus during the month of October. This festival takes place in order to venerate and honor goddess Draupadi. Legend says that Draupadi was made to walk on burning coals barefoot, without any expressions of pain, in order to prove her fidelity to her husband. To commemorate this painful event and respect the courage of the goddess, the Thimithi festival includes the bizarre event of fire walking."

Preparing the coals/fire.
The Thimithi festival is the time for the Hindu priests and the devotees to demonstrate their devotion, valor and fortitude. They do so by walking across a 21 ft pit full of burning coals without showing any signs of pain. This is considered a test of purity as the Hindu devotees and priests believe that they will be burnt only if they are impure.

Waiting in line outside the temple.

They would then come in and pray.

Waiting in line inside the temple. We wanted a photo of the little band and got to go in right up close at the end. Everyone was calm except one man who did not want to do it and his friends had to coax/force him.

Some men walked slowly,

others a little faster,
some even ran,
Most of them had offerings. Each deity has their own favorite flower or leaves. There are a couple of photos at the end of the post showing where they left their offerings.

After the fire walking is done, they walk through a pit of goat's milk and blemish their feet with turmeric. These men also support the others as they enter the pit so they don't slip.



Some would also pray/pay devotion at the end.


Then they'd walk off to leave the offering at or on the statues of the deity.

They washed their feet off afterwards. I think I'd want ice.

The women sang and supported them. This is something only the men particiapte in.


The women can also pay devotion.


Below and above are examples of where they would leave their offerings.



Seeing as it was the middle of the night there were alot of people sleeping. There were babies,


girls,


boys,


adults,


and groups of people sleeping everywhere. It was really quite a sight!


Our feet were yellow from the turmeric. It took a lot of scrubbings and several days until the yellow was all gone. I hope I haven't bored all of you to tears with this long post but I thought it was fascinating. For those of you here in Singapore it's definitely one of the more unique things I've done and worth a visit next year. I had a great time!

The People

I was totally fascinated by the attendees and decided if they are always asking to photograph Samara then it was my turn for some payback. They didn't seem to mind. Steve McCurry, a photographer whom I love, had an exhibit here this summer. I attended a little seminar he gave. He took the famous Afghan Girl photo on the cover of National Geographic. India is one of his favorite places to shoot and it is easy to see why. The people are fascinating. Their culture is so rich and colorful.

The older people especially loved being photographed and seemed quite flattered when Debbie or I would ask them if we could take their photo.



I learned on my walk that you can tell if the person is from the south or the north, which are apparently very different from one another, by the way they wear their saris and their jewelry. I also learned in their culture it is immodest to have legs showing but not midriffs, which makes sense since their saris show off the midriffs and fully cover their legs.

I think the way they mark their foreheads also indicates where they are from.

They were so much easier to photograph than busy kids. I didn't even need to pose them. They were already posed perfectly.

I loved the colors in her clothes.

I went up into the stands to get a photo of the whole fire pit and was in front of this gentleman. When I was leaving he asked if I was going to take his photo so I did, of course. Sometimes when an Indian will ask to take Samara's photo he/she will ask if I want it emailed to me to which I think, "why on earth would I want your camera phone picture of her glaring at you?" Anyway, he wanted to see it after I took it so I said I'd email it to him. Maybe he didn't have an email address but he had the same reaction I do and did not want me to email it to him.

This cute lady turned and posed for us when we came up. We had wanted to get a photo of the pretty flowers in her hair so we asked if we could take one of her hair too. She and her friends then started to giggle and they teased her, "they wanted a photo of your flowers and you turned and posed." It was quite funny. Of course, things have a way of seeming funny at 4 AM.
I would love to photograph them during daylight hours. I'm not sure what I'd do with all the photos though but I know Debbie and I sure had a lot of fun snapping away. I think we exemplified Singapore's tolerance for differences that night. One Nikon and one Canon user getting along beautifully.

Lantern Festival

The "lantern" or "moon festival" is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty. Decorations are up and celebrations go on for a few weeks but the most important day is when the moon is at its fullest, on the fifteenth day of the eight lunar month. That fell on Oct 3rd (Saturday) and there was a big mass lantern walk in Chinatown. The lanterns represent the moon.


We are members of the Science Centre and they sponsored a smaller walk that started at the Chinese Gardens MRT station, which is closer to our house and it was earlier in the evening. It was on Friday but we figured we could still appreciate the moon a day shy of it being at its fullest. They gave out free lanterns that you put a little candle in. Samara LOVED it!



I am sure she (well we all) will be disappointed when we move back home and don't get to celebrate these neat holidays.


The walk went to the science center observatory where you could look at the moon and get a mooncake. We had met up with some friends and we all decided to go on our own little walk to the Chinese Gardens instead. We had been told that there weren't any decorations this year there but when we saw it all lit up we wanted to check it out.


It was beautiful. They normally have big elaborate lantern displays (last year it was hello kitty) so that must be why we were told there weren't any decorations there. The decorations were simple but breathtaking. We love the Chinese and Japanese Gardens (where the turtle museum is). It is always uncrowded, which is a welcome relief living in this sea of people. Chinatown was great too, but I thought this was especially nice and peaceful.




One last tribute to the moon at its almost fullest. In fact, I bet that's even what those Chinese characters say.

Mr. Ben goes to Chinatown

Ben's birthday was Friday, so on Saturday night we headed into the city to Chinatown to a little noodle restaurant that came highly recommend (Thanks Kate & Lehi!).

Dustin and Deborah joined us and we all enjoyed watching Mr. Wong make the noodles. It's a process that takes years to learn and is passed down from generation to generation. We each got a different noodle dish and they were very tasty and fresh.

We also had some yummy yummy dumplings. We've been wanting to check out this place for a while and were glad to finally make it there. The other reason we decided on Chinatown for our night out was because we'd been there the week before for the start of the mid-autumn festival, which is one the three most important Chinese festivals.

Here is a description I found online: "Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month among Chinese communities worldwide. This auspicious occasion is a time of gathering and reunion for families and friends, many of whom come together to enjoy mooncakes, Chinese tea and appreciate the moon at its fullest."

We are hoping to make it next week to a lantern walk at the chinese gardens where the kids get a lantern and mooncake when the moon is full. So another post may be coming.

We had a great time with some wonderful friends. It makes it feel more like home here having fabulous people to mingle with.

These two kept resting there heads on their dads heads and looking at each other and I thought it was so sweet.

Some lanterns. They sell them all over Chinatown--from more traditional ones like these to hello kitty and spiderman. It's always interesting to see how the west influences the east.

A street in Chinatown adorned with lanterns.

A dragon from the little light-up procession/parade.

The little parade. If it weren't for the big heads in the way this would be a great photo but it at least gives you an idea of what it looks like. Next year I'm pushing my way to the front row and taking a tripod!

Someone please help me!!

Samara has never been good at just setting something down by herself. When she was an infant and would be sitting in her car seat, she'd fuss and fuss if she wanted to get rid of a toy because she wanted me to take it instead of just setting it down. She is still like this and I'm constantly saying things "like my hands are full" or "I don't have any free hands, please just set it down". One of Samara's jobs is calling the elevator whenever we are going somewhere. One day last month we were headed down for a swim with our nieces. We were all getting our shoes on and I sent her out the door loaded up with all her swim stuff to call the elevator. We then heard her yell from the hallway, "Help, help! Can someone else push the button? I don't have any free hands." Her stressed out dramatic tone made it all the funnier. Now I know that she does indeed listen to me.