Hindu festival attracts crowds of bathers to rivers

PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) – Millions of people participated in a 45-day Hindu bathing festival in the northern Indian city of Prayagraj, where devotees take a dip in Sangam, the sacred confluence of several rivers. There, they bathe on certain days considered auspicious, in the belief that they will be cleansed of all sins.

Rows and rows of colorful tents, in which the devotees stay, line up in the broad venue of the festival. Millions of Hindus travel each year to the event, called Magh Mela, where pilgrims offer prayers and enter the sacred waters where the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet.

In Hinduism, this period is called Kalpvas and devotees who choose to stay all the time are known as Kalpvasis. They abandon their daily routine and instead camp on site, living on frugal meals and performing rituals.

Virender Kumar Shukla, a devout Kalpvasi, is participating for the fifth time. He said he hopes, in offering prayers, “to find a place in heaven” and to obtain “a better rebirth”.

It took the authorities months to build what appears to be a temporary tent city on the banks of the river. Police patrol the site and floating bridges were built to help people get across the river. The boats transport pilgrims from the bank of the Yamuna to the Sangam, where they bathe in holy water and offer their prayers.

The festival is being held although cases of COVID-19 in some parts of the country are increasing after months of steady decline. India confirmed 11 million cases and more than 150,000 deaths.

Health officials have told local media that they have tested tens of thousands of pilgrims to detect the virus since the festival began on January 14. It is scheduled to end on February 27.