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Big festivals in India

India is a big country with a lot of contrasts. Contrasts between regions, contrasts between people, but a constant across this immense country-continent, is the interest offered by its major religious festivals, whether Hindu or Buddhist, Muslim or Sikh. Even its traditional trade festivals are absolutely remarkable, such as the large annual camel and horse market at Pushkar in Rajsathan.

Among the great Hindu festivals, the most famous is certainly the one known as the Holi, or festival of colors or even Diwali, festival of lights.

Kumbh Mela

But the one that surpasses all the others is probably that of the Kumbh Mela. The Kumbh Mela is the largest religious holiday in the world and is organized according to astrological data that Indians are fond of. Thus, the Kumbh Mela is organized in turn in various holy cities of the country according to a cycle of 12 years. Depending on the city where it is organized, the number of participants varies from 30 million (as is the case in the "smallest" of the Kumbh Mela, that of Ujjain) to 200 million in Allahabad.

Event: Kumbh Mela 2016

Simhastha: Kumbh Mela at Ujjain

The Kumbh Mela is a great religious festival which takes place once every 3 years, alternately in 4 holy cities of India crossed by a sacred river.

 

- Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) on the Ganges

- Haridwar (Uttarakhand) on the Ganges

- Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) on the Shipra river

- Nashik (Maharashtra) on the Godavari river

 

Mythical origin of Kumbh Mela

The Kumbh Mela is based on the Hindu myth of the barrage of the sea of ​​milk. In very ancient times, the deva and the asura (the gods and the demons) made a provisional alliance so as to work together to develop the amrita, the nectar of immortality, from the Ksheera Sagara, the primordial sea of ​​milk, and then to share this amrita.

However when the kumbha, the jug containing the amrita appeared, the demons seized it and fled away, chased by the gods. For twelve divine days and twelve nights, the equivalent of twelve human years, the gods and demons fought in the sky for the possession of the jug of amrita. During the battle, drops of amrita fell in four places: Paryagraj (Allahabad), Hardiwar, Ujjain and Nashik, reason why these cities are sacred and the place of celebration of Kumbh Mela.

The ritual baths in the sacred river during the Kumbh Mela wash the participants of their faults.

The Sadhus Bath

The bathing of Sadhus in the river gives it properties multiplying the beneficial effects of the bath for the faithful.

This is why Sadhus are the first to bathe in the river.

The Naga Sadhus are saints in India and live as ascetics or hermits in the caves of the Himalayas. During the Kumbh Mela hundreds of naked Sadhus covered with ash leave their retirement to participate in the festivities. 

about the place, Ujjain:

Ujjain is the fifth city in the state of Madhya Pradesh in terms of importance. It is the capital of the ancient Avanti kingdom. The city began to decline with the English occupation which preferred Indore to him as regional capital.

The city has more than half a million inhabitants.

It is one of the sacred cities of India

Spoken comments in the film: 

Naga sadhus, (or naked sadhus), are known to carry weapons, such as tridents, swords, canes and spears. They would once have formed an armed order to protect Hindus from Mughal rulers. Generally nonviolent, at present some sections are known to practice wrestling and martial arts.

Naga sadhus seek to detach themselves completely from material things and pleasures other than spiritual. This is the reason why many of them mutilate their sex by attaching heavy weights among other things.

They are detached from the things of the earth and live naked and the ash which covers the holiest of them comes from cremations.