This 9 day festival takes place every year in the rural village of Inuvil, at Pararajasekhara Pillayar Kovil, the largest Ganesha temple in Jaffna, Sri Lanka and is attended by over a thousand locals and diaspora. Each day, to spread blessings to those present and absent, the devotees carry solid metal idols of Ganesha and his family in circles around inside and outside of the temple. Shouldering these idols around the temple grounds is a moment of deep connection with God, which is intensified by their spiritual responsibility to the community. Over the years, these devotees develop a lump behind their necks from the weight, similar in appearance to the humps found on Brahman Cattle, symbolising strength and devotion.

One of the rituals in the festival is Kavadi Aattam, which is an attempt to balance out the spiritual dept of a loved one in need of healing by subjecting oneself to pain, by means of hooks inserted into the skin. The Burden Dance, as the name translates, is performed to Murugan, the Hindu God of War as a procession around the temple grounds and through the surrounding streets.

Festivals are very stressful times for head priests, as the spiritual well-being of the entire community, including its diaspora, rests on their shoulders. The amount of mental and physical preparations that is required leaves little time for sleep, typically only 1-2 hours a night.

Jaffna, Sri Lanka June, 2022