Every Friday, Googlers round up some of the best posts they came across during the week to celebrate the amazing discoveries Local Guides like you are sharing on Connect. This week, Valentine’s Day in Japan, Kumbh Mela, and more.
@JavieraAu: For this Friday Favorites, I want to bring your attention to a story that shows how Connect unities people. A new member of our community, @Avraham_Jurado, shared a post that our well known Connect Moderator @FaridMonti saw and quickly jumped right into conversation on. In no time, both Local Guides connected and decided to organize a meet-up. A few days later, @Avraham_Jurado summarized their adventure to Cascada de los Amigos (the Waterfall of Friends) in a recap post titled “Secrets in the forests of Tierra del Fuego.” With a lot of passion, he shared their beautiful experience and the priceless advice @FaridMonti shared with him. This meet-up showed how extraordinary our community is. And, if you want to experience the meet-up through @FaridMontis eyes, check out his recap post “Historias de Senderismo - Cascada de los Amigos” as well.
@MashaPS: This week I would like to bring to your attention a post called “Kumbh Mela 2019: What does the largest human gathering on earth look like?.” It is about an event which happens once every six years and gathers millions of people. Hindu people travel from different parts of the world and gather by the holy river side. The main purpose of this event is to bathe in the river. They believe that the blessed water will cleanse then of their sins.
While reading @Saurabh_Narang’s post I was amazed by how strong faith can be. I cannot imagine how it looks to have 50 million people all in one place! The other thing that was very interesting to me is another the naga babas tradition. Those people are believed to be ardent followers of Shiva. And what surprised me was that their bodies are covered with ashes, faces are colored too, and they are the most respected ones on this event. The naga babas are the first ones who bathe in the holy waters of the river.
Check out this post to learn more about the Hindu faith and its traditions. Be sure to scroll through the comments where you can find even more interesting information on the topic.
@TsekoV: While browsing Connect this week, a post that undeniably caught my attention is@KarenVChin’s post “Planet or Plastic? Something to think about as Local Guides Clean the World.” It mainly stresses the urgent need of responsibility from everyone of us. Planet or plastic? The choice is ours. We all live under one roof: Earth. We should attempt to preserve our home. I feel very worried when I think about how so many of us take our planet for granted A valuable question to think about is: Is our consuming behaviour causing irreversible deterioration to our world? @KarenVChin has started a great thread where many Local Guides are sharing their thoughts on sustainability. So, if you’re interested in saving our planet, I encourage you to join the conversation there.
@MoniV: With Valentine’s Day this week, you can sense that love is in the air through @YasumiKikuchi’s post [DEEP JAPAN] Japanese Valentine’s day.” Apart from the amazing chocolate treats that he managed to capture, we got to learn how Japanese people celebrate this holiday in a unique way, adding an additional date (White Day) one month after, so both men and women have their special day to express their affection towards one another. So long live love and chocolate!
Tell us about some of the best posts you’ve read on Connect lately and be sure to keep an eye out next week to see if one of your posts is selected for Friday Favorites! You can check out last week’s Friday Favorites here.


