Ganesh Chaturthi-2024






Ganesh Chaturthi is a Hindu festival which means  a 10 days celebration and worship of Lord Ganesh. It is celebrated on the occasion of birth of Lord Ganesh,  in the month of Bhadrapada of Hindu calendar.  He is the son of Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva who has elephant head (Gajanan), considered to be a symbol of prosperity, Lord who  fulfills all the wishes (Sukhkarta and Dukhharta) and called as "Vignaharta" who removes all the obstacles.

According to mythology, when Lord Shiva was doing his meditation in a forest, Goddess Parvati created a son with the dirt of her body and named him as Ganesh. She told her son to  not allow anyone to enter while she was going to take bath. When Lord Shiva came back, he was stopped by Lord Ganesh. Lord Shiva got angry and hit him with his trishul cutting off his head.  On realizing that it was his own son, he begin to mourn and decided to bring him back to life. He asked Nandi to cut the throat of anyone who was not sleeping next to his mother as mother is a protector of it's child. Thus Nandi could only find an elephant in such a situation and thus brought its head which was placed on the body of Lord Ganesh bringing him back. Lord Ganesh was blessed by several Gods and Goddesses to be worshipped first on any occasion by the devotees which means for any worship and pray, it must begin with Lord Ganesh. 





Every year Ganesh Chaturthi begins with the bringing of clay idols of Lord Ganesh at home, followed by pran pratishta which is invoking the God. Some devotees prepare their own idols at home and worship instead of buying from the market. The devotees keep fast and worship him by chanting mantras and offering him different types of Prasad or Offering. "modak" (sweetballs) are considered to be Lord Ganesh's favorite food along with other sweets. The festival is celebrated not only in Maharashtra but all over India. Devotees bring the idols at homes and treat the idols as their loving guests by offering meals and doing arti which is worshipping with incense sticks and lighted candles and lamps and singing songs in the praise of Lord Ganesh.



A temporary structure is made to venerate the God which is known as "Pandals" or "Mandaps". These pandals are prepared beautifully to welcome the Lord and serve him with Mantras and Bhajans which is devotional songs. Some of the famous pandals such as Lal Bagh ka Raja famous for it's majestic idols are filled every year with huge crowd of devotees visiting the place. Later after the celebration the idols are submerged into water while singing "Ganpati Bappa Morya". These days in order to save the planet, concept of eco friendly idols have been started which protects the environment from getting harmed after the celebration.




Ganesh Chaturthi teaches us that nothing is permanent, according to hindu scriptures it encourages the idea of the cycle of life and death. The celebration of the festival is a symbol of celebration of life with prosperity, grandeur, pomp and show, whereas the celebration ends with submerging of these idols which had been worshipped for 10 days, ultimately putting them into water. As the body leaves the soul, soul never dies and is born in another body taking a rebirth, idols are put into water with a hope that next year Lord will come back with same positive energy bringing more happiness and joy fulfilling the desires and wishes of the devotees again.

                                                  "Ganpati Bappa Morya"





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