“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)

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 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)

Newly-wed couples attend their group wedding ceremony which was held as part of the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in the northern city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province January 6, 2016. As many as 15 couples attend this mass wedding ceremony. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

People throw turnips at the Jarramplas as he comes out from the church beating his drum during the Jarramplas Festival on January 20, 2016 in Piornal, Caceres province, Spain. The centuries old Jarramplas festival takes place annually every January 19-20 on Saint Sebastian Day and this year they expect to use more than 20 thousand kilogrames of turnips. Even though the exact origins of the festival are not known, various theories exist including the mythological punishment of Caco by Hercules, a relation to ceremonies celebrated by the American Indians that were seen by the first conquerors, to a cattle thief ridiculed and expelled by his village neighbours. It is generally believed to symbolize the expulsion of everything bad. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)