Fire Walking...

Sorry for the lack of blog posting! It seems I've been busy over the past couple of weeks...though aside from a 4 day trip to Bangkok (next post!) I can't really remember what I've actually been doing :) Anyway...

About 2 weeks ago, I crawled into bed around 11 p.m. and set my alarm for the unsightly hour of 2 a.m. Now if you truly know me, you know that my eyes rarely see past 10 or 11 p.m., but every now and then something intrigues me enough to break my 10 p.m. - 5:30 a.m. sleep pattern. In this case, the something was Thimithi, a Hindu fire-walking ceremony. So at 2:15 in the morning, I met my friends Amanda and Cara and we took a taxi over to the Sri Mariamman Temple to see what Thimithi was all about.

I admit that prior to seeing the ceremony I knew very little about it, but thanks to the internet, I'm now well informed! Here's what I learned: the fire-walking originated in South India and is in honor of Draupadi who is considered the incarnation of Mariamman. In Singapore, the ceremony begins at a temple in Little India where the priest leads a procession of people to the Sri Mariamman Temple in Chinatown where the actual fire-walking takes place. The street is then lined with countless male devotees ready to cross over the hot, burning coals. The priest is the first to cross followed by the rest of the men, each proving their faith. Their belief is that if they are truly devoted to Draupadi they will walk the fire unscathed. Those that don't have true devotion or faith may suffer from burns. If you want to read more about the entire ceremony, you can do so here.

Now back to my personal ramblings and thoughts :) When we arrived outside the temple, we were completely confused. We saw hundreds of devotees lining the street and large projection screens to watch the fire-walking, but we wanted to SEE it live. We absolutely stuck out among the crowd, but thankfully all the Indian people were more than happy to help us out and tell us where to go. We were allowed one very fast walk through the center of the temple, directly in front of the fire walking, but I wasn't able to take any pictures during that time. Eventually, we made our way back around to another side of the temple and worked our way through the crowd to a place where I could hold my camera high up in the air and snap away. The temple was PACKED shoulder to shoulder with people so after seeing what we wanted to see, we left to go back home around 3 a.m. As I crawled back into bed that morning, I thought about the entire event and how the whole thing made me feel pretty sad for the people. I drifted off to sleep, but not before thanking God whole-heartedly for the fact that I don't have to walk across burning coals to prove my devotion to Him! And I'll do it again right now...thank you God for allowing me to pray to You and honor You no matter where I am! Thank you that I don't have to prove my faith by walking on fire. Thank you that I can make a mistake and You are right there to forgive me! Thank you for sacrificing Your son and allowing me to be saved through faith with a promise of eternity in Heaven with You! AMEN! 

The temple was jam-packed with people.

We worked our way through this crowd to try and get a few pictures...

I believe this guy was praying to his god while crossing the burning coals.

This guy ran across - he must have really been able to feel the burn from the coals. What does that say about his devotion?

After they walk the fire, they immediately step into a pool of muddy water to cool their feet

After they successfully walk the fire, they head over to a designated area to give thanks to Draupadi (I assume) and rub tumeric on their foreheads