Also known as: Vinayaka Chaturthi, Vinayaka Chavithi, Ganeshotsav, Ganesha Chaturthi · Observed: Across India, especially Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Tamil Nadu
Significance of Ganesh Chaturthi
Ganesh Chaturthi celebrates the birth of Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, who is worshipped at the start of every undertaking as Vighnaharta, the remover of obstacles, and as the lord of wisdom, learning and auspicious beginnings. Few festivals are as joyful or as widely shared: families bring home a clay image of Ganesha, worship him as an honoured guest for one and a half to eleven days, and then bid him farewell with immersion in water, with the hope that he will return the next year.
The festival has both a domestic and a public face, and its community celebrations have long served to bring neighbourhoods together through music, art, social service and cultural programmes.
Legends of Ganesha
According to the Shiva Purana, Parvati created a boy from the turmeric paste on her body and placed him at the door while she bathed. When Shiva arrived and was refused entry, a fight followed in which Shiva severed the boy's head. To console the grieving Parvati, Shiva replaced it with the head of an elephant and made the child the leader of his ganas, declaring that he would be worshipped first among all gods.
Another story explains why one should not look at the moon on this night. Ganesha, returning from a feast, stumbled and the moon laughed at him. Ganesha cursed the moon, declaring that whoever saw it on Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi would face false accusation. The Bhagavata and Vishnu Puranas tell how Krishna himself, having glimpsed the moon, was falsely accused of stealing the Syamantaka jewel, and cleared his name only after recovering it. Listening to this story is believed to remove the effect of an accidental sighting.
How Ganesh Chaturthi Is Celebrated
On the festival day an image of Ganesha is installed with the prana pratishtha ritual and worshipped with the shodashopachara, sixteen offerings, including durva grass, red hibiscus, shami leaves and modakas. Many Telugu households worship twenty-one kinds of leaves (ekavimshati patra puja) and read the Vinayaka Vrata Katha. Aarti is sung morning and evening throughout the festival. Immersion, visarjan, takes place on the second, third, fifth, seventh or eleventh day, the last being Anant Chaturdashi.
In Maharashtra the public Ganeshotsav, popularised in the late nineteenth century by Lokmanya Tilak, turns Mumbai and Pune into cities of pandals, with celebrated images such as Lalbaugcha Raja and the Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati. Hyderabad's Khairatabad Ganesh is among the tallest images. In Goa, Chavath is a major family festival, and in Tamil Nadu, homes and temples worship Vinayaka with kozhukattai. Growing awareness has led many families to choose unbaked clay images and natural colours to protect rivers and lakes.
Food and Offerings
Ganesha's favourite food is the modak, a dumpling of rice flour filled with coconut and jaggery, steamed (ukadiche modak) or fried. Telugu homes prepare undrallu, kudumulu and panakam, Tamil homes kozhukattai and sundal, and Karnataka homes kadubu. Twenty-one modakas are traditionally offered.
How the Date Is Determined
Ganesh Chaturthi falls on Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi, the fourth tithi of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada. Ganesha is believed to have been born at midday, so the festival is fixed on the day when Chaturthi prevails during madhyahna, the middle part of the day. If Chaturthi covers the madhyahna on both days or on neither, almanacs apply further rules, generally preferring the day on which Chaturthi spans the larger part of the midday period.
Rituals and customs
- Installing a clay Ganesha with prana pratishtha
- Offering durva grass, red flowers and twenty-one modakas
- Patri puja with twenty-one kinds of leaves
- Reading the Vinayaka Vrata Katha and the Syamantaka story
- Avoiding sighting the moon on Chaturthi night
- Visarjan on the chosen day, up to Anant Chaturdashi