This event is popularly called as Chetty Pusam in Singapore. Devotees offer prayers, either by piercing their chest with spikes and lemon, pulling a chariot from Srinivasa Perumal Temple, or carrying Kavadis. The devotees offer their prayers and fulfill their vows. The Vel (holy spear) in the sanctum is showered with milk continuously for hours. In the build up to Thaipusam, these devotees must live a life of abstinence while maintaining a strict vegetarian diet. It is believed that only when the mind is free of material wants and the body free from physical pleasures that a devotee can undertake this sacred task without feeling any pain