Theemidhi Festival
Deepavali Celebrations 2005
Sri Mariamman Temple
3am, 24 October 2005

In the epic poem Mahabharata, the Goddness Draupadi walked barefoot on buring coals to prove her innocence. Today, devotees brave a four-metre bed of red-hot embers barefoot in her honour.

Festival celebrations began at Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in the late evening with a procession to Sri Mariamman Temple at Chinatown. The fire-walking ceremony started at 3 o'clock in the early morning.

In preparation for the firewalk, the great number of faithful Hindu and Chinese devotees worked themselves up into a trance before walking over burning ambers. What is so amazing about this was the fact that the devotees' feet did not have any trace of scars or burns at all after performing the feat. The devotees' purpose in doing this was to fulfill all their wishes.