What: Ganesh Chaturthi Festival
When: 05 – 15 September, 2016
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The 10-day celebrations will end with mass-immersions of the idols at Indian beaches.
The end of the monsoon brings round one of India's most beloved festivals - 'Ganesh Chaturthi'. Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Lord Ganesha and to pay tribute to the Lord (the elephant-headed). Observed during the Hindu month of Bhadra (mid-August to mid-September), it lasts for 10 days. This year, the festivities began on 05 September, 2016 when the Ganesha idols are brought home and installed in a flamboyant ceremony. The idol is offered pure water along with libations such as honey and milk. It could be safe to say that what Diwali is to North India, Ganesh Chaturthi is to the western part of the country. A certain fever seems to grip Maharashtra when this festival comes around. And what makes it even more exciting is that it is a 10-day long celebration, and not just a day affair.
India on Monday celebrated the first day of Ganesh Chaturthi, the beloved deity, the darling of the masses is widely known for removing all worldly obstacles and the herald of auspicious beginnings and wisdom. The modern culture involves setting up clay idols of Ganesha in sanctums, which are worshiped for ten days. Worship ceremony involves offerings of flowers, coconut and sweets. Ganpati is a harbinger of fortune and is always the foremost deity to be remembered before initiating a any good task in Indian culture. The immense festive celebrations of Ganesh Chaturthi ends with the 'visarjan' or the farewell ceremony which takes place on the 10th day in a flamboyant musical procession that ends up at a water body where the idol is immersed. The idol is carried and immersed in water, either the sea, rivers, lakes or even a bucket of water. The final visarjan day is when all the celebrations are at their peak. The cities come to a standstill when throngs of worshipers trail their idols to the shores.
Devotees carry an idol of Hindu elephant god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, during a procession through the streets before immersing it in the waters of the Arabian Sea on the last day of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Ganesh idols are taken through the streets in a procession accompanied by dancing and singing, and later immersed in a river or the sea, symbolizing a ritual seeing-off of his journey towards his abode, taking away with him the misfortunes of all mankind.
It is believed that the benevolent deity of the dynasty of Peshwas, Ganesha ruled Maharashtra – thereby infusing a special culture in this state. Ganesh Chaturthi has been celebrated publicly in Pune since the era of Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha Emperor during the 17th century. However, with the fall of the Peshwas, the festival became just a private family celebration having lost its patronage. It was a social reformer and Indian freedom fighter, Lokmanya Tilak who revived the celebration as a means to unite the people through festival and since then, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated with much pomp and grandeur all across the nation.
Ganesh Chaturthi is a pretty wonderful time for epicureans. It's modak season, Ganpati's favorite sweet dumpling that has graced the plates of Maharashtrians for centuries. Popularly known as 'ukdiche modak', these rice flour dumplings are traditionally stuffed with coconut and jaggery and eaten warm with pure ghee. Sometimes, the modak is steamed with fragrant turmeric leaves. Today though, the modak has evolved into hybrid forms - infused with strawberry and chocolate; healthy baked modak and sugar-free ones are now available everywhere.
Watch this space for our 'Modak' special tales!
