Suggi Habba - Harvest Festival

Celebrated annually in parts of rural Karnataka in South India, Suggi Habba is a thanks-giving festival that marks the end of the harvest season. Against the backdrop of dry, harvested fields and rustic temples, images of local deities are propitiated with offerings of food, flowers, and pageantry.

Music and dance are vital to the celebration, as it is believed that the more the devotees dance and rejoice, the more satisfied the deities. Perhaps the most committed offering occurs when devotees walk bare feet across hot, burning coals. The sting from the embers is a small price to pay for the bountiful harvests provided by the gods. As remarkable as this offering is, the most dramatic feature of the festival, however, is trance possession, when certain members become possessed with the spirit of the deity. Overcome with divine energy, the mediums walk on nails, impale their bodies without drawing blood, and gyrate and thrash about uncontrollably.

The overall energy is intense, the spirituality palpable, the sincerity humbling, and the spectacle - truly memorable.