HINDU PILGRIMAGE FESTIVAL COMMENCES AMID COVID-19 SURGE IN INDIA
About 700,000 worshippers have gathered in he northern Indian city of Haridwar to observe a pilgrimage rites.
A Massive crowd of Hindus worshipers are arriving in the northern Indian city of Haridwar early this morning for there largest religious pilgrimage on Earth, even as experts warned it could cause a surge in Covid-19 cases as the country grapples with a second wave. The gathering is known as the months-long Kumbh Mela festival, one of the most significant Hindu celebrations, typically takes place every 12 years and draws tens of millions of pilgrimages to four rotating sites.
This year the site of gathering in Haridwar, a foothills of the outer Himalayas in Uttarakhand state, devotees will attend prayers, and presumably wash their sins away in the sacred waters of the Ganges River. According to some myths associated with the festival, the river water turns into "amrita," or the nectar of immortality, on particular days, but the covid-19 sees the event bern postponed till its relatively safe to take part in any social gathering
The Covid-19 measures have seen the festival postponed and then scaled back subsequently so. The traditional date for commencement is called Makar Sankranti, which was suppose to be in January, but the authority decline the people to take holy baths in the river until the government's feels it's relatively safe which brings it to a formal launch on the first of April.
Although authorities moved the start date, and shortened the pilgrimage from three and a half months to just one month, many people have chosen to disregard the official guidelines, said Oommen Kurian and go ahead with the gathering to seek spiritual cleansing. A senior fellow and head of health initiative at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, expresses fear over ta possible result of the gathering following a fourth wave surge been experience around the world through the Covid-19 variants .
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