The 10 Most Spectacular Religious Festivals in The World

Held on a rotating cycle at four sacred river sites in India, the Kumbh Mela is the largest human gathering on Earth, drawing tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims to bathe at an astrologically precise moment believed to wash away sin.

Ash-covered sadhus lead the procession into the water, followed by ordinary pilgrims across weeks of ritual bathing and prayer in tent cities that briefly become some of the most populous places on the planet.

Mathura and neighbouring Vrindavan, revered as Krishna's birthplace, host India's most exuberant Holi celebrations, where temple courtyards and streets dissolve into clouds of pink, yellow and green powder thrown by everyone from small children to elderly priests.

It's the purest, wildest version of India's best-known festival, at the town where the tradition began.

Jaipur, the Pink City, commits harder to Diwali than almost anywhere in India: the old city and its bazaars are strung with thousands of clay oil lamps and fairy lights for over a week, and the illuminated pink sandstone facades of Johari Bazaar are considered among the country's best Diwali displays, fireworks lighting the sky above the City Palace.

For a week before Easter, Seville's centuries-old religious brotherhoods carry ornate wooden floats bearing statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary through the streets on the shoulders of hidden bearers, accompanied by hooded penitents and mournful saeta singing.

Balconies fill and cafes stay open past midnight as processions cross the city continuously, culminating in the sleepless Madrugada from Maundy Thursday into Good Friday.

On the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, the old mining town of Pingxi in Taiwan's mountains fills with thousands of paper sky lanterns, hand-painted with wishes and released to drift over the narrow valley and its disused rail line.

The tradition began as an all-clear signal after bandits had passed, and is now one of Asia's most spectacular festival sights.

Thailand's traditional New Year erupts across Chiang Mai's old city moat every April, when the custom of pouring water over elders' hands to bless them expands into a citywide water fight, with super-soakers, hoses and buckets thrown from pickup trucks.

Locals and travellers alike end up soaked head to toe against a backdrop of ancient brick gates and temples.

Ethiopian Orthodox Christians mark the Epiphany with Timkat, when replicas of the Ark of the Covenant, wrapped in cloth and carried by priests, are paraded from every church to a shared body of water the night before.

Crowds in white robes sing and dance through the night, and at dawn the water is blessed and the crowd surges in for a symbolic re-enactment of Christ's baptism.

Lalibela's rock-hewn churches make the most striking backdrop for it.

Malaysia's Thaipusam centres on Kuala Lumpur's Batu Caves, where Hindu devotees climb 272 steps carrying kavadi - ornate frames pierced through the skin with hooks and skewers, some towering overhead with peacock feathers and metal spikes.

The piercings are undertaken as a vow or thanksgiving, with devotees reporting no pain in a trance-like state, while millions of spectators line the route and cave temple above.

Sri Lanka marks the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and death on a single full-moon day each May, when towns are strung with illuminated pandals depicting Buddhist Jataka tales and paper lanterns line every street.

Free food stalls called dansal appear on street corners run by volunteers, temples fill for all-night prayer and chanting, and Colombo's streets glow entirely on donated light rather than commercial decoration.

Cebu City's Sinulog honours the Santo Nino with the festival's namesake dance - two steps forward, one step back - performed by thousands of costumed dancers moving to non-stop drumbeats along a route lined with several million spectators.

It grew from the same Santo Nino devotion as Kalibo's Ati-Atihan but has become the country's largest festival, climaxing in a grand parade on the third Sunday of January.