lørdag 8. mars 2025

‘You need a bath after the bath’: World’s largest religious gathering wraps up after 600 million devotees take holy dip

Hundreds of millions of Hindu devotees have bathed in sacred waters, despite concerns over overcrowding and water pollution, as the world’s largest religious gathering wrapped up Wednesday in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Over the last 45 days, more than 620 million people – over a third of India’s roughly 1.4 billion population - have attended the Maha Kumbh Mela, or the festival of the Sacred Pitcher, on the riverbanks in the city of Prayagraj, in a spectacle of color and expression of faith.

Followers have come to take a holy dip in the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of three holy rivers – the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati – to purify their sins and take another step closer to “spiritual liberation.”