Thaipoosam Cavadee

On the 21st of January, Mauritius celebrated the Thaipoosam Cavadee Festival. A festival celebrated primarily by the Tamil community during the full moon, it commemorates the birth of Murugan, the youngest son of Shiva and his wife Parvati, and the occasion in which Parvati gave Murugan a spear. so that he can defeat the demon. Before the celebration of Cavadee, the Tamil community is getting ready. Ten days of Lent: vegetarian diet, sexual abstinence and many prayers. Indian mythology tells that this tradition was instituted by Idumban, who to thank Murugan, tutelary god and father of Ganesh and Shiva, for bringing it back to life, will carry the Cavadee every year. The Cavadee is a stick to which the penitent attaches to each end “a mountain top” – arches of flowers of different sizes and colors. Some choose to pierce the body of needles of various lengths, up to 3000 needles on different parts of the body. That day, one of the penances is not to talk about the whole day. For this, some people pierce their mouth or their tongue with a long and big needle.

Photographe : Rajiv Groochurn