*hellshallbemine

I went on a weekend trip to Val Morin (Québec) over the weekend with a few friends. There was an annual Hindu religious festival on Sunday. I had the pleasure of getting to see a Kavadi up close.

I've always heard of (extreme) religious practices, but it's very different from seeing photos of them and actually being there. I do have photos, but they don't capture the moment.







^ Hooks and tridents are inserted in various places. It's done without anesthetics or anything of that sort. The point, my friend told me, is to feel as much pain. _{But heck, I mean, you can always stick your head under a lawnmower if you want to feel maximum pain. /bad joke}





^ Some of the participants were suspended from a large moving vehicle, with only ropes attached to hooks supporting them. It kind of made me sick to think of how much pain that they would have to endure, since some of them would stay like that for quite a long time (3-6 hrs).





^ This dude really freaked me out. The fact that he was sitting on air with nothing supporting him from the bottom. He looked really dazed out--I assumed that he was completely numb from the pain.

I personally wouldn't do anything like this for any belief in God. The idea that people inflict such extensive physical pain on themselves for their conviction both scares and amazes me. All the more power to them.

Overall, despite the fact that I was squished between thousands (5000+) of people...

(That entire field was full in an hour or so)

... I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. (Getting free food helped. So did getting to meet tons of _sexy people from the yoga camp nearby).