Editorial photo #1000150 Religion and Belief

Gangasagar Mela 2016

Indian Hindu devotees run to reach the temple through makeshift barricades to offer prayers at a temple on Gangasagar Island around 150 km south of Kolkata on January 14, 2016. More than 500,000 Hindu pilgrims and sadhus - holy men - are expected to gather at the confluence of the River Ganges and the Bay of Bengal during the Gangasagar Mela to take a 'holy dip' in the ocean on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, a holy day of the Hindu calendar considered to be of great religious significance in Hindu mythology.