Hundreds of thousands of Indian pilgrims and the startling processions of sadhous, famous Hindu hermits, flocked to bathe in the sacred Ganges river on Thursday for a major Hindu festival, despite the still high threat of COVID-19 .
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The authorities in Haridwar, in the state of Uttarakhand (north), are expecting 2.5 million people for Maha Shivratri, a day of bathing in the sacred waters of the Ganges, for Hindus during the Kumbh Mela festival which has started February 13 for a period of 48 days. Two other sacred baths will take place by the end of these festivities, classified as intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO.
Before dawn, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children thronged for miles of shoreline to immerse themselves briefly in the living water, sing and scatter flowers in the river as an offering.
A little later, the processions of hundreds of sadhus, these ascetics with bodies only covered with ashes, wearing long dreadlocks, in the direction of the waters of the Ganges were at the center of general attention, before their immersion in the river, constituting a always very strong moment of the festival.
Bathing in the sacred river, for Hindus, purifies sins and offers salvation.
According to Hindu mythology, gods and demons waged war over a sacred pitcher, the Kumbh, which contained an elixir of immortality. A few drops escaped in four different places which, nowadays, host these festivities alternately.
The last pilgrimage, which took place in Prayagraj, the ancient Allahabad in southern Uttarakhand, in 2019, welcomed 55 million people in 48 days.
COVID-19 tests negative
Due to the pandemic, the government has reduced the size of the Kumbh Mela this year, for which negative COVID-19 tests are theoretically required.
Through the Haridwar loudspeakers, the city authorities recalled that wearing a mask is compulsory and that permanent physical distancing should be maintained, while hundreds of volunteers spray the pilgrims with disinfectants.
Coronavirus contaminations have declined sharply in recent months and life is tending to return to almost normal in many ways in this vast country of 1.3 billion people, but during the festival masks are actually scarce .
“There is no fear of the pandemic and people are moving freely. India has already conquered the disease and there is no reason to worry, ”Nitesh Kumar, a 31-year-old pilgrim, told AFP.
“I have been waiting for this day for years, but because of the pandemic, I thought it would be canceled. But our faith is stronger than the pandemic, ”says another Hindu devotee named Rishab.
India has recorded more than 11 million cases of COVID-19, the second most contaminated country in the world, deploring more than 160,000 deaths.
On Thursday, there were nearly 23,000 new infections, a sharp drop from the peak of nearly 100,000 new daily cases reached in September. On the other hand, it is a doubling compared to the month of January.
Contamination is on the rise again in several regions, thanks to a certain relaxation, in particular in the western state of Maharashtra and its capital Bombay, where restrictions have again been imposed.