Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, India

With at least 75 million pilgrims (2001), the Kumbh Mela, the “festival of the jug”, is considered the largest religious festival in Hinduism and even in the whole world. In March 2010 a “small” Kumbh Mela took place in Haridwar in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. I was there – together with several million Indians who had made a pilgrimage here to the upper reaches of the holy river Ganges. After sunset the whole place is bathed in a sea of lights …