Festivals in January

If you like your religious events with a tribal feel and a heavy drum beat then the Ati-Atihan Festival may just be worth the journey to the Philippines. For three days every January the town of Kalibo on the island of Panay, comes to life with an abundance of colourful indigineous costumes and weapons in street parades where crowd participation is actively encouraged.

Marvel as millions (70 million over the 45 days of the Ardh Kumbh Mela) of Hindus come together for the largest, most colourful gathering in the world, Kumbh Mela. Four times every 12 years this mass Hindu Pilgrimage rotates between four locations in India: Allahabad (Prayag) at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna and mythical Saraswati River, Haridwar on the Ganga River, Ujjain along the Kshipra River and Nashik on the Godavari River. It truly is a spectale beyond scope and a once in a lifetime event for anyone who attends, regardless of religion.