The Kumbh Mela is a major cultural celebration in India. The festival is celebrated at four riverbank pilgrimage sites, each one every twelve years. The sites are Prayag at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Sarasvati Rivers; Haridwar on the banks of the Ganges River; Nashik on the banks of the Godavari River; and Ujjain on the banks of the Shipra River.
This year the Kumbh Mela is being held at Haridwar. The festival began on January 14 and will continue until April 27. The Kumbh Mela celebration has been included on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2017. Taking a holy dip/bath in the river is considered a very important ritual as part of the mela. It is estimated that about 700,000 people took the holy dip on the first day.
The word kumbh or kumbha means ‘pot’ or ‘pitcher’ and the word mela means ‘to unite’ or ‘to join’. The pot that is being referenced here is the pot of nectar that came out while the gods and demons were churning the ocean for the nectar of immortality in the Hindu myth of Samudra Manthan.
