A gruesome and unique festival takes place in Tamilnadu, south India, where Hindu devotees pierce their bodies with hooks and suspend themselves from cranes.

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.

Devotees often carry pots of milk as offerings to the deity Lord Muruga, and perform the hook piercings as marks of penance and atonement.