Month of fasting culminated on Sunday with the public Kavady Parade and Festival marked by the Hindus around the world. In Dundee, devotees gathered in Peacevale with their colourful Kavadies – a wooden arched structure decorated with flowers, peacock feathers and deity pictures and carried by the devotees on their shoulders
The festival is in celebration of the anniversary of the Hindu deity, Lord Muruga, having received the Vel (the lance that he carries) from his mother, Goddess Parvathi, in Hindu mythology. Carrying a Kavady is a form of penance. Some devotees also pierced their bodies with needles andvel-shaped skewers and also pulled chariots, using hooks pierced into the flesh of their backs.