“Kavadi Attam is a dance performed by the devotees during the ceremonial worship of Murugan, the Tamil God of War. It is often performed during the festival of Thaipusam and emphasizes debt bondage. The Kavadi itself is a physical burden through which the devotees implore for help from the God Murugan”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A devotee pulls his procession burden connected by hooks pierced in his back during the Thaipusam procession at Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on February 7, 2012 in Singapore. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Devotees push the chariot of Rato Machhindranath during the chariot festival at Bungamati in Lalitpur April 22, 2015. Rato Machhindranath is known as the god of rain and both Hindus and Buddhists worship Machhindranath for good rain to prevent drought during the rice harvest season. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A sculptor walks past ice sculptures at the Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival “Eiswelt Mainz” in Mainz, Germany, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Reuters)

Participants dressed as Vikings carry torches as they march in procession before burning their viking galley ship at the culmination of the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31, 2017. (Photo by Andy Buchanan/AFP Photo)

Owners hold their pets as a Catholic priest (L) blesses them outside the San Francisco church in Lima, October 4, 2015. Hundreds of pets get blessed during Saint Francis of Assisi festivities outside the San Francisco church in downtown Lima. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

A face of a devotee covered with her cloth is pictured as she offers prayers to the rising sun during the "Chhat" festival in Kathmandu, Nepal November 18, 2015. Hindus in Nepal celebrate "Chhat", a four-day festival that honours the sun god by praying at sunrise and sunset and seeking blessings for ones family by giving offerings. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A child looks up to his partner as she stands above the crowd with the support of an elaborate rig of hidden metal rods, during the Bun Festival parade at Cheung Chau island in Hong Kong on May 22, 2018. Thousands of local residents and tourists flocked to an outlying island in Hong Kong to celebrate a local bun festival on Tuesday despite the recording-breaking heat. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

A youth in costume hurries past a mural after dancing at the Sun Festival in Cotacachi, Ecuador, Sunday, June 24, 2018. Across the Andes, from the tip of Argentina as far north as Colombia, indigenous communities are gathering for the southern hemisphere's winter solstice to honor the ancient sun god. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)