The Kumbh Mela, a six-week Hindu celebration that organizers anticipate drawing up to 400 million people, opens Monday in India, marking the start of the greatest human gathering in history.
The size of the Kumbh Mela preparations, according to organizers, is comparable to creating a temporary nation from scratch, one that is larger than the combined populations of the US and Canada.
“Some 350 to 400 million devotees are going to visit the mela, so you can imagine the scale of preparations,” festival spokesman Vivek Chaturvedi said.
Around 150,000 toilets have been built and a network of community kitchens can each feed up to 50,000 people at the same time.
For a gathering so big that its dazzling lights can be seen from space, another 68,000 LED light poles have been set up.
To assist pilgrims who become disoriented in the massive crowd “to reunite with their families,” authorities and the police have also established a network of “lost and found” centers and a companion smartphone app.
With 1.4 billion inhabitants, India is the most populated country in the world and is accustomed to big crowds.
In 2019, the Indian government said that 240 million pilgrims attended the site’s last celebration, known as the “ardh” or half Kumbh Mela.
In contrast, an estimated 1.8 million Muslims travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, each year to perform the Hajj.
A “vibrant blend of cultures, traditions, and languages, showcasing a’mini-India’ where millions come together without formal invitations” is how the government describes the Kumbh Mela.
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