For One Village in India, This Week's Full Moon Means Honoring a Slain Demon

For Hindus in India, it's currently the month of Kartik, which is celebrated in various ways across the subcontinent. In Shristhal village in the southern Indian state of Goa, for example, members of one temple reportedly choose Kartik's night of the full moon to commemorate the ancient demon king Bali's slaying of another demon, Rumadavant.

A sacred pole was placed at the temple site where the killing is believed to have occurred. So per tradition, this week the pole was decorated to commemorate Rumadavant's death. Young men of the village circled the pole, chanting "Govinda, Govinda" under the moon's light in the slain demon's honor, and placed flowers and candles there.