{"id":6170,"date":"2026-01-14T08:18:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T08:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/over-9-lakh-devotees-take-holy-dip-at-sangam-ahead-of-makar-sankranti-at-magh-mela\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T08:18:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T08:18:47","slug":"over-9-lakh-devotees-take-holy-dip-at-sangam-ahead-of-makar-sankranti-at-magh-mela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/over-9-lakh-devotees-take-holy-dip-at-sangam-ahead-of-makar-sankranti-at-magh-mela\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 9 Lakh Devotees Take Holy Dip at Sangam Ahead of Makar Sankranti at Magh Mela"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>More than nine lakh devotees<\/strong> took a holy dip in the <strong>Ganga and at the Sangam<\/strong> here by Wednesday morning as part of <strong>Makar Sankranti<\/strong> festivities, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>While many parts of the country are observing the harvest festival on Wednesday, <strong>Uttar Pradesh will celebrate Makar Sankranti on Thursday<\/strong>, which also marks the <strong>second major bathing festival of the ongoing Magh Mela<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Superintendent of Police (Magh Mela) <strong>Neeraj Pandey<\/strong> said devotees began arriving at the ghats in the early hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy 6 am, over nine lakh devotees had taken a dip in the Ganga and at the Sangam. The number of pilgrims is expected to rise to <strong>between one crore and 1.5 crore by Wednesday evening<\/strong> on the occasion of Makar Sankranti,\u201d Pandey said.<\/p>\n<p>To manage the massive influx of pilgrims, <strong>over 10,000 police personnel<\/strong> have been deployed across the mela area to ensure security and smooth traffic movement.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said <strong>more than 31 lakh devotees<\/strong> took a holy dip during the <strong>Paush Purnima bathing festival<\/strong> this year, while <strong>28.95 lakh pilgrims<\/strong> participated in the Paush Purnima bath during <strong>Magh Mela 2024<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Magh Mela Officer <strong>Rishiraj<\/strong> said that <strong>42 temporary parking facilities<\/strong> have been set up this year with the capacity to accommodate <strong>over one lakh vehicles<\/strong>, helping ease congestion and ensure smooth traffic flow.<\/p>\n<p>He added that a total of <strong>12,100 feet-long bathing ghats<\/strong> have been constructed for <strong>Magh Mela 2025\u201326<\/strong>, equipped with basic facilities such as <strong>changing rooms and toilets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>To maintain adequate water levels in the Ganga during the fair, <strong>8,000 cusecs of water<\/strong> are being released daily from the <strong>Ganga barrage in Kanpur<\/strong>, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>44-day-long Magh Mela<\/strong>, held annually during the Hindu month of Magh (January\u2013February), takes place at the <strong>Triveni Sangam<\/strong>, the confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Magh Mela Prayagraj 2026<\/strong> is being held from <strong>January 3 to February 15<\/strong> and is marked by several age-old traditions, including <strong>Kalpavas<\/strong> and the <strong>Panchkosi Parikrama<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key bathing dates<\/strong> for the Magh Mela include <strong>January 15 (Makar Sankranti), January 18 (Mauni Amavasya), January 23 (Vasant Panchami), February 1 (Maghi Purnima)<\/strong> and <strong>February 15 (Maha Shivratri)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than nine lakh devotees took a holy dip in the Ganga and at the Sangam here by Wednesday morning as part of Makar Sankranti festivities,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6170","post","has-post-thumbnail","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/channel1.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}