Repost of the Day: Theemithi Firewalking Festival
October 31st, 2020
Happy Halloween and Full Blue Moon!
Today I’m sharing my experience at the Firewalking Festival at Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple in Singapore in 2013. This year’s festival is happening right now and livestreaming online if you’re interested in watching. (You may also watch the edited video on Singapore’s Hindu Endowments Board Facebook page.)
Tomorrow, I have a new post from here at home about an outing we did tonight. Monday’s post will return to our roadtrip of the Desert Southwest.
Until then,
Kelly
Repost of the Day: Adding a bit of light to the darkness as we get through the pandemic together. This series features travel photos from my archives, shared with you while staying close to home.
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Theemithi Firewalking Festival
It was evident that something unusual was afoot as I walked toward Chinatown and smoke drifted across South Bridge Road, muting the colorful shophouses in the distance. It was 5:30 p.m. when I arrived at Sri Mariamman temple for Theemithi, or the Firewalking Ceremony. Dull clouds and rumbling thunder added uncertainty to the atmosphere as I removed my shoes and prepared to step inside the temple.
I wasn’t sure what to expect of Theemithi, but the reality was suddenly in front of me as I followed a single-file procession of people into the temple. The one-lane roped path turned left, then right, and I found myself face-to-face with the massive bonfire that would slowly, over the next several hours, burn down to a bed of hot coals four meters long. I continued on the path, feeling the fire’s radiant heat, as the smoke drifted into me, my eyes burning. The path turned right, away from the fire, and spit me out at an open-air courtyard where light rain was falling.
Gobsmacked, I stood and looked around me. I had just seen the fiery heart of Theemithi within one minute of my first time inside the Sri Mariamman temple. I hadn’t expected to see the fire so closely or be allowed to view the preparations first-hand. But that’s what I find so compelling about Hindu ceremonies in Singapore — if you show up with respectful curiosity, you are rewarded with fascinating opportunities to watch and learn.
I stood for a long time and observed the activity around me as people started packing into the covered halls of the temple, finding their places to watch the ceremony. I squeezed into a spot below an exquisite mandala painted on the temple’s ceiling and waited for the ceremony to begin.
Women were dressed in spectacular color, with bright gold and sparkling crystals adorning their necks, earlobes, wrists and ankles. I could see glimpses of the fire — still raging with orange flames whipping into the air as men cooled the temple wall near the fire with a water hose. I surmised the firewalking was still a couple hours away, and with so much happening around the temple I couldn’t resist deserting my post to see what was happening elsewhere.
I exited the temple, went around to the entrance to walk another lap past the fire, got caught in a dead-end mob as the temple entrance was closed temporarily, squished my way back through the crowd, walked down Pagoda Street, circled back on Mosque Street, and finally emerged at South Bridge Road. The crowd had multiplied and navigating the scene was getting much more difficult. I had been at the temple for about three hours and decided it might be easiest to go home and watch the temple’s streaming video of the ceremony online (how convenient!). But wait! The entrance was open again. Curiosity unsatisfied, I dove in for one more lap.
Shoes off and walking the path again, the buzz in the temple was now a palpable rush of adrenaline and anticipation as men flattened the fire to a red-hot smoldering blanket. The path led me back to the temple courtyard — this time packed with spectators. With no clear view of the firewalking from where I stood, I exited the temple and went to the street to watch the arrival of the firewalkers along South Bridge Road.
Firewalkers practice vegetarianism and fasting rituals for several weeks before Theemithi. On the night of the walk, they take ritual baths and then walk barefoot from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple to Sri Mariamman temple (about four kilometers). On arrival at the temple they gather at one end of the firepit and walk across the coals, one by one. If a firewalker’s devotion to Hindu goddess Draupati Amman is absolute (in whose honor the ceremony is held), he will emerge from the firewalk unscathed.
A quartet of drums and horns kicked into a crescendo of music as police stopped traffic on South Bridge Road. Bare-chested with orange kaavi mundus around their waists, dozens of firewalkers chanted as they walked past me and entered the temple. With activity at fever pitch and no chance to get a good view of the ceremony that late into the proceedings, I hopped a cab on New Bridge Road and went home to watch the firewalking online.
One by one, the barefoot firewalkers crossed the hot coals — some of them running fast with fear and others stepping slowly with miraculous tolerance. Two men waited at the end of the pit, helping the firewalkers step out of the coals and into a trough filled with milk, then back onto the temple ground. When a path across the firepit became worn, the coals were raked to even out the surface and the firewalking resumed. The ceremony continued into the night, with hundreds of men crossing the fire in a unique act of devotion — a triumph of mind over matter, faith over doubt.
How cool! Great pics as always!
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Thank you, Pazeras!
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Love the colors, excitement, and edginess (if that’s a word!). And I can almost feel the heat. I have never heard of this event, so thanks for letting all of us know about it. Singapore is quite the city — old and new together.
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That is so true — old and new in a fantastic blend of history and future. Thanks Rusha!
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What an amazing event beautifully described and photographed Kelly. Look forward to seeing your adventure last night 💕
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Thank you! Wish I had been able to see it a second time but maybe someday in the future.
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Great post Kelly. You know this is the kind of travel experience I live for! And I totally get your frustration at not being able to see it in person. But at least you saw a lot of the action and could see it online. Amazing!
Alison
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Thank you, Alison! Yes, you would have loved this event. And I wish I had stayed all night or maybe gone home and come back. It went most of the night in pre-Covid times. Such a unique event and so full of tradition and belief.
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You have described the whole event so well, it’s almost like being there. And the photos are so detailed, the watering of the walls to cool then is interesting, how much heat that bed of fire must generate! I never saw a firewalking event, need to check YouTube.
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Thanks Deb! It was so cool to see this event. The huge fire, the drumming, the energy — it was just electric. And yes, the HEAT! It was intense when I first walked in and it was crazy to see them spraying water on the walls. All in all, a memory I won’t forget!
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