Now Reading: Devotees pierce flesh in festivals to goddesses in India and Britain
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Devotees pierce flesh in festivals to goddesses in India and Britain
Devotees pierce flesh in festivals to goddesses in India and Britain
Hindu devotees marked the Aadi festival on Sunday, 9 August 2026, in Chennai and London, with rituals involving piercing the skin with hooks, rods and miniature water pots as offerings to goddesses.…
The Story in Brief
Hindu devotees marked the Aadi festival on Sunday, 9 August 2026, in Chennai and London, with rituals involving piercing the skin with hooks, rods and miniature water pots as offerings to goddesses. Photographs by Associated Press show devotees in Chennai with steel rods through cheeks, hooks in the back pulling chariots, and milk pot processions. In London, worshippers took part in the Hindu Chariot Festival honouring the god Amman, performing acts of sacrifice.
The Aadi festival is a holy month for Tamils observed with prayers and offerings to Hindu goddesses. The London event also celebrated the goddess Amman. The rituals reflect deep devotion, with some devotees spinning with hooks still in place.
The Indian Opinion
Western audiences may gawp at the hooks and rods on the skin, calling it barbaric. But the same observers rarely ask why a society that celebrates faith through such bodily sacrifice often sees those same devotees denied clean water or decent wages. The real story here is not the pain, but who gets to decide what reverence looks like. The next time a lurid headline about such rituals appears, ask how many of those devotees have access to a hospital nearby.
Source: news.google.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
