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The main road to the lake becomes flooded with walking pilgrims, and those that choose to ride in cars or busses. |
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Once pilgrims arrive at Ganga Talao, they put their kanwar down on the grass and rest, or walk around admiring the creativity of kanwars from other villages, temples or community groups. |
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Every year 250,000 - 300,000 pilgrims visit the lake over the several days of the festival. |
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Most pilgrims walk at least part of the way and spend a number of hours in prayers and making offerings at the banks of the lake. |
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There are also many tents set up for food and sleeping, giving the whole place a sense of a makeshift village. |
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Pilgrims bring with them the offerings they will need for the rituals of the festival. Most families will wait until they can use one of the many small white tables on the banks of the lake. |
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Once they gain access to the bank of the lake, each family offers fruit and incense and performs prayers to Lord Shiva and to the sacred Ganges, who is also know as the goddess Ganga. |
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Each family collects holy water from the lake in a small metal jug, praying over the water and then emptying it back into the lake several times before keeping one jugful. |
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Pilgrims take this water home with them and will later pour over the Linga or sacred symbolic sculpture of Lord Shiva found at the center of the sanctuary of their local temple. |
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The festival of Maha Shivaratri is one of the most important Hindu festivals on the island, and is the largest Hindu Pilgrimage outside of India. In 1972, a ceremony bringing water from the river Ganges in India to the lake in Mauritius was conducted, recognizing the site as an important place of pilgrimage within the Hindu religion. |
