{"id":26827,"date":"2021-01-14T21:46:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T12:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jan\/14\/hindus-gather-india-kumbh-mela-festival-covid-fears"},"modified":"2021-01-14T21:46:56","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T12:46:56","slug":"up-to-1m-hindus-gather-in-india-as-festival-goes-ahead-amid-covid-fears-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=26827","title":{"rendered":"Up to 1m Hindus gather in India as festival goes ahead amid Covid fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Millions more expected to descend on Haridwar in coming weeks for Kumbh Mela despite pandemic <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/series\/coronavirus-live\/latest\">Coronavirus \u2013 latest updates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/coronavirus-outbreak\">See all our coronavirus coverage<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Up to a million Hindu pilgrims have gathered on the banks of the River Ganges in northern India, marking the start of a major religious festival that is taking place despite the risks of Covid infection.<\/p>\n<p>Millions more are expected to descend on Haridwar in the coming weeks for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/jan\/15\/why-kumbh-mela-in-prayahraj-is-festival-to-end-all-festivals\">Kumbh Mela<\/a>, one of the world\u2019s biggest religious gatherings. Pilgrims bathe in the Ganges in the belief that the sacred waters will cleanse them of their sins.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jan\/14\/hindus-gather-india-kumbh-mela-festival-covid-fears\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Millions more expected to descend on Haridwar in coming weeks for Kumbh Mela despite pandemic Coronavirus \u2013 latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageUp to a million Hindu pilgrims have gathered on the banks of the River Ganges in northern India, m&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1066,346,516,62,914,371,61,565,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-health","category-hinduism","category-india","category-infectious-diseases","category-religion","category-south-and-central-asia","category-vaccines-and-immunisation","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26829,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827\/revisions\/26829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}