Gangasagar Mela 2015..... Candid Moments
Many devotees perform the last rites of their departed relatives on the Makara Sankranti Day!
Śrāddha (Sanskrit: श्राद्ध) is the ritual that one performs to pay homage to one's ancestors, especially to one's dead parents. Many people visit Hindu pilgrimage sites to perform Śrāddha ceremonies. Gangasagar is one of such important places.
In Śrāddha ceremony, people after head shaving, cleans themselves; a bathing in the river, throws away old clothes and wears only new white clothes, and selects a priest to perform a homa (fire ritual), and offers balls of rice (Pind-Daan) to the departed souls!
Gangasagar pilgrimage and fair, held annually, is the second largest congregation of mankind (more than 1.5 million this year) after the holy Kumbha Mela. Gangasagar finds mention in sacred texts and ancient scriptures of Hindu mythology including the two great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
The river Ganga (Ganges) which originates in the Gangotri glacier in the snow clad high Himalayas, descends down the mountains, reaches the plains, flows through ancient pilgrimage sites, and drains into the Bay of Bengal. A dip in the ocean, where the Ganga meets the sea is considered to be of great religious significance particularly on the Makara Sankranti day (January 14/15), when the sun makes a transition to Capricorn from Sagittarius. Almost a million of Hindu devotees from all over India gather at Gangasagar for a holy dip and perform rituals and prayer (puja) with a belief that it will cleanse and purify their souls.
Images of Bengal, India
Gangasagar Mela 2015..... Candid Moments
Many devotees perform the last rites of their departed relatives on the Makara Sankranti Day!
Śrāddha (Sanskrit: श्राद्ध) is the ritual that one performs to pay homage to one's ancestors, especially to one's dead parents. Many people visit Hindu pilgrimage sites to perform Śrāddha ceremonies. Gangasagar is one of such important places.
In Śrāddha ceremony, people after head shaving, cleans themselves; a bathing in the river, throws away old clothes and wears only new white clothes, and selects a priest to perform a homa (fire ritual), and offers balls of rice (Pind-Daan) to the departed souls!
Gangasagar pilgrimage and fair, held annually, is the second largest congregation of mankind (more than 1.5 million this year) after the holy Kumbha Mela. Gangasagar finds mention in sacred texts and ancient scriptures of Hindu mythology including the two great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
The river Ganga (Ganges) which originates in the Gangotri glacier in the snow clad high Himalayas, descends down the mountains, reaches the plains, flows through ancient pilgrimage sites, and drains into the Bay of Bengal. A dip in the ocean, where the Ganga meets the sea is considered to be of great religious significance particularly on the Makara Sankranti day (January 14/15), when the sun makes a transition to Capricorn from Sagittarius. Almost a million of Hindu devotees from all over India gather at Gangasagar for a holy dip and perform rituals and prayer (puja) with a belief that it will cleanse and purify their souls.
Images of Bengal, India