Ganesh Chaturthi Indian Festival Celebration
What is Ganesh Chaturthi?
- Ganesha Chaturthi also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi or Vinayaka Chavithi is a Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Ganesha. A ten-day festival, it starts on the fourth day of Hindu luni-solar calendar month Bhadrapada, which typically falls in the months of August or September of the Gregorian calendar.
How is it Ganesh Chaturthi Celebrated?
- The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha clay idols privately in homes, or publicly on elaborate pandals (temporary stages).
- Observations include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts such as Ganapati Upanishad, prayers and vrata (fasting).
- Offerings and prasadam from the daily prayers, that is distributed from the pandal to the community, include sweets such as modaka believed to be a favorite of the elephant-headed deity.
When Goes Ganesh Chaturthi End?
- The festival ends on the tenth day after start, wherein the idol is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in a nearby body of water such as a river or ocean. In Mumbai alone, around 150,000 statues are immersed annually.
- Thereafter the clay idol dissolves and Ganesha is believed to return to Mount Kailash to Parvati and Shiva
Belief on Ganesh Chaturthi Celebration?
- The festival celebrates Lord Ganesha as the God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles as well as the god of wisdom and intelligence and is observed throughout India, especially in the states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Telangana, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, and is usually celebrated privately at home in states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Ganesh Chaturthi is also observed in Nepal and by the Hindu diaspora elsewhere such as in the Australia, Trinidad, Suriname, Fiji, Mauritius, United States and in Europe(in Tenerife).
