(toskanews) – India is preparing to welcome 400 million pilgrims (more than the combined population of the United States and Canada) for the six-week Hindu religious festival Kumbha Mela, which aspires to become the largest gathering in history. In Prayagraj a makeshift city is even being built to welcome pilgrims because it will be a special edition of this celebration which is held every 12 years in the place where the sacred rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati meet. In fact, it will be held from January 13th to February 26th and will coincide with a special alignment of the planets.
A huge tent city, two-thirds the size of Manhattan, is being prepared on the floodplains of Prayagraj in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Roads, housing, sewerage, lighting systems, around 150,000 toilets and community kitchens have been built which can feed up to 50,000 people at a time. The city is filled with huge posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a reminder that politics and religion are deeply intertwined.
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