Kumbh Mela is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism. It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years at four river-bank pilgrimage sites The festival is marked by a ritual dip in the waters, but it is also a celebration of community commerce with numerous fairs, education, religious discourses by saints, mass feedings of monks or the poor, and entertainment spectacle. The seekers believe that bathing in these rivers is a means to (atonement, penance) for past mistakes and that it cleanses them of their sins.

I took this shot way back in 2013 when I attended this massive gathering of people and took a dip in the holy river of Ganges in the early hours of a chilly morning. The river water was ice cold. It was in the city of Allahabad in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Camera: Canon Sx130IS, standard-setting. Image cropped, slightly adjusted, and resized to FAR requirements.