A gruesome and unique festival takes place in Tamilnadu, south India, where Hindu devotees pierce their bodies with hooks and suspend themselves from cranes. <br /><br />The Panguni Uthiram festival, which means “Full Moon of Divine Marriages", is celebrated annually during the full moon of the Tamil month of Panguni, during the month of March. <br /><br />Devotees often carry pots of milk as offerings to the deity Lord Muruga, and perform the hook piercings as marks of penance and atonement.
