Haridwar - Pilgrims congregating

There are some major religious festivals held in Haridwar. The Kumbh mela is held over here once every 12 years and is known as the largest religious based gathering of people in the world. Upwards of 10 million people congregate here for a ritual bath in the river that is supposed to wash away sins. Just making sure that the festival is held without chaos takes a massive amount of organization and the state can be justly proud that these festivals are organized without any major incident happening.
The gathering above was for a much smaller festival, but even for this much smaller event, there were a large number of devotees who had gathered. The river at this time of the month is starting to get fresh supply of water from its mountain origins and the flow is much faster, but this does not prevent the devotees from aiming to get their ritual dip. As can be seen, devotees are patiently waiting, and for many of them, just spending time in this place is a major event.