Ganesh Chaturthi Festival

| Celebrations | Legend |

Deva oh Deva Ganpati DevaThe birth anniversary of Lord Ganeshji,is celebrated as Ganesh Chaturthi .

This festival comes on the 4th day of Bhadarva Shukla-paksh of Hindu calender in (August/September). Ladoos (sweets) are distributed, milk is offered to idols of Lord Ganeshji at home and at temples, and worshippers visit Ganeshji temples for Ganesh Puja.

This elephant-headed god, vehicle is the Mooshak or rat and loves Modaks (round sweets called Ladoos).

Elaborate arrangements are made for lighting and decoration and Ganeshji is fervently worshipped for about 7-10 days.On the day of the Chaturthi, i.e. the last of the days dedicated to the god ,shrines are erected, firecrackers let off, huge images of Ganeshji are carried in grand procession for 'Ganesh Visarjan' accompanied by the sound of devotional songs and drums.

Myths & Beliefs of Ganesh Chaturthi

Why People don't look on Moon That Day? There is very popular legend regarding this context. He is very fond of sweet pudding or Ladoos. On one of His birthdays he was going around house to house accepting the offerings of sweet puddings.

Having eaten a good number of these, he set out moving on his mouse at night. Suddenly the mouse stumbled as it had seen a snake and became frightened with the result of that Ganeshji fell down.

His stomach burst open and all the sweet puddings came out. But Ganeshji stuffed them back into his stomach and, caught hold of the snake and tied it around his belly.

Seeing all this, the moon in the sky had a hearty laugh. This unseemly behaviour of the moon annoyed him immensely and so he pulled out one of his tusks and hurled it against the moon, and cursed that no one should look at the moon on the Ganesh Chaturthi day. If anyone does, he will surely earn a bad name.

Beliefs: In India, Ganeshji is worshipped first on all auspicious occasions, whether it is a marriage or a religious function. Ganeshji is the foremost god of the Hindu Pantheon. Any new project or venture that a Hindu family undertakes starts with his name, the housewife utters his name before even starting a small chore as he is the remover of all sankat (obstacles) and is an extremely benevolent god, fulfilling the wishes of those who pray to him sincerely.

Ganeshji also has long been associated with commerce, and merchants still pay homage to him. If an Indian business or bank fails, all the images of Ganeshji in the offices will be turned upside down, signifying the bad luck.

In households, it's common for small offerings of money, flowers and food to be placed before one of the family's effigies of Ganeshji. These tokens please him and he therefore brings more beauty, money and food to the family.