Ganesh Chaturthi is a festival in India that is celebrated for the birth of Lord Ganesh, the remover of all obstacles. It marks the arrival of Lord Ganesh to people’s homes for 10 days.
Apart from being a family oriented festival, it has much more importance as a public festival in different parts of India.
Ganesh is the elephant headed God, the son of Parvati and Shiva. He is a very popular god for his image as removing all obstacles and bestowing wisdom and prosperity. He is believed to be easy to please and answering prayers more easily.
Family and Ganesh Chaturthi
People bring idols of Ganesha on this day with a lot of celebration. After installing the idol and worshipping it with flowers fruits and sweets, people visit each other to get blessings from Ganesha. Ganesh likes sweets called modak so it is to be found almost in each house. Blade of durva grass and the hibiscus flowers are considered his favourite. People sing aartis along with the bells and small cymbals. Sweets are distributed after each aarti. Families immerse their Ganesh idol either after one and a half day or 5 days or sometimes after 10 days. Many people recite the Ganapati Atharvashirsha on this or the next 10 days and immersing his idol in water at the end of his stay.
Public and Ganesh Chaturthi
Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the biggest publicly celebrated festivals in India. People collect donations in their areas to buy a Ganesh idol. Large pandals are set up for the next ten days. This pandal is usually made ready much in advance with decorations and lighting and sometimes as a replica of some famous temple or palace. People bring the idol in a procession amid a lot of dancing, drums and fire crackers. After a small ritual, the idol is installed in the pandal usually on a small stage. Sweets are distributed to everyone who comes to take blessings. This being the first day, excitement is at its peak.
The festivities that start on Ganesh Chaturthi end on the tenth day by immersion of the idol amid processions and celebrations.
Politics is often involved in this since the pandals are very frequently sponsored by political parties in a bid to garner more votes by impressing the people.
Conclusion and Ganesh Chaturthi
Ganesh Chaturthi, although a religious festival, starts off a period of fun and many programs and competitions.
Comments are closed.