Graphic toont de feiten rond het Kumbh Mela-festival.
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INDIA

Hindu's naar grootste samenkomst van mensen ooit

January 15, 2019 - Meer dan 120 miljoen Hindu-gelovigen zullen de noordelijke stad Prayagraj (voorheen Allahabad) bezoeken voor 's werelds grootste religieuze festival, daar waar de Ganges, de Yamuna en de mythische Saraswatisamenvloeien.

The Kumbh Mela is a series of ritual baths by Hindu sadhus, or holy men, and other pilgrims at the confluence of three sacred rivers that dates back to at least medieval times. Pilgrims bathe in the river believing it cleanses them of their sins and ends their process of reincarnation.

The event, which UNESCO added to its list of intangible human heritage in 2017, rotates among four pilgrimage sites every three years on a date prescribed by astrology. This year's festival is of the type that occurs every six years. The BJP-led governments are spending about $650 million, more than triple the public money spent in 2013 on an event that was religiously far more important because it happens only every 12 years.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 16/01/2019; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Getty Images
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