THEE MIDITHAL - WALKING OVER THE FIRE

this friday (3-9-10) morning i had a plan of going to telephone exchange regarding internet connection, but i slept till 10:30 am. so i thought of sending my father, he too bit delayed it. later on i myself went and as usual they gave explanation & me too came with that explanation. after coming home just indirectly i scolded my father, there started the verbal fight which develped into verbal abuse. as usual i gave some explanation to my mom and i went to bed. around 12:00pm my father woke me and told about his village agni festival. since it is about god i accepted. me my father and my mom went to village agni festival.
wow! what a temple and festival it was awesome!. the highlight is AGNI.first time i had seen the agni. this festival is sort of tribal form of worship.
agni is the festival where the people walk over the red hot burning charcoals.the distance will be 20to 30 ft (might be less) and following the fire pit there was stagnant water.100's of people walked over the fire(agni).i was amazed by just few peoples. the first person who entered into the fire was with pot covered with cocunut and mango leaves.this person was walking over the fire as if he was walking on the road. that was amazing ! few young girls they too were walking!
the men and the women in the middle age were jumping and hoping to reach the water pit.three group of people i found really awesome 1. young unmarried girls. 2. the father's who had their kids over their shoulder and 3.old peoples. these three peoples were just walking over the fire without any hast. when i asked my mom about it,she told those three were sincere in that 18 days fasting/penance. actually those 18 days are to prepare their body and mind to cross the fire pit. there were incidents of minor accidents (mostly middle age peoples) those people failed to focus themselves. brain takes 3 seconds to react to the hot objects but those people took an average of 10 to 15 sec. ????? on the whole day i was thinking about this. the deity is pachai amman ( green mother) and male deity is veeran (a hero). the priest were singing songs with very different strokes with one silambu(made of brass which gives jal jal sound) in their hands. after so many years i literally enjoyed the real festival . in the night i was discussing about the village with my father.