​Ganesh Chaturthi - “Ganapati Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukariya”

“Ganpati Bappa Morya”

Ganesh Chaturthi is an annual festival in India celebrated primarily in August and September. Also known as Vinayak Chaturthi, it is one of the most revered festivals in India, which is mainly celebrated in Mumbai and Western India. This festival marks the birthday of the Hindu deity Lord Ganesha. More importantly, the festival signifies the arrival of Lord Ganesha with his mother goddess Parvati to the human realm from the Kailash mountain.

The celebrations begin on the day of Chaturthi when people install clay idols and statues of their devotee Lord Ganesha. Intricate and elaborate stages and ‘pandals’ are set up for the eleven-day festival. Ganesha aartis are conducted in the morning and evening at homes, temples, and offices. Devotees chant Hindi hymns to please their deity. Temples distribute offerings of modaks among the people. Modaks are believed to be Lord Ganesha’s, favorite sweet. During this festival, people decorate their homes, buy and wear new clothes and light diyas. Some people also fast during the eleven-day festival.

At the end of the eleven-day festival, the people immerse their clay idols of the deity in their nearest water source like a sea or a river. This submersion of Lord Ganesha is meant to reunite him with his parents Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. This ritual is known as the visarjan. This visarjan implies the removal of all obstacles and difficulties from a person’s life. Even though the festival is an age-old tradition, people have now started checking the impact this ritual has on the environment. The visarjan pollutes the oceans and rivers and submersion of non-eco-friendly idols has been checked rigorously. This festival is also widely celebrated in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal.

Ganesh Chaturthi 2021

Ganesh Chaturthi, the festival celebrating the birth of Lord Ganesha falls on September 10 this year.

During this 10-day duration of Ganesh Chaturthi, there are 16 rituals performed. Among them we are broadly classifying the 4 key rituals:

AVAHANA AND PRAN PRATISHTHA

This is the first and main step after devotees do ‘Deep-Prajwalan’ and ‘Sankalpa’. With mantra recitation, Lord Ganesha is reverentially invited and life is invoked in the idol placed in the pandal or temple or at home. It’s a ritual to consecrate the ‘murti’ or statue.

SHODASHOPACHARA

The next step involves the tradition of 16-step puja wherein ‘shodasha’ means 16 and upachara means ‘devoutly offering the lord’, in Sanskrit.

Having washed Ganesha’s feet, the idol is bathed in milk, ghee, honey, curd, sugar (panchamrit snan) followed by scented oil, and then Ganga Jal. Then new vastra/clothes are offered (vastra, uttariya samarpan); along with flowers, unbroken rice (Akshata), garland, sindoor, and Chandan. The idol is decked and worshipped religiously by offering modak, betel leaves, coconut, lighting incense sticks, diyas, chanting hymns, mantras.

UTTARPUJA

This ritual is performed before visarjan. With great joy and devotion, people of all age groups participate in the festival. Be it in pandals, temples, or homes, Ganesha Chaturthi is observed with immense happiness. People sing, dance, and light up fireworks. With the beautiful chant of mantras, aarti, flowers, Ganesha is worshipped to bid farewell. The sequence of steps involved is Niranjan aarti, Pushpanjali Arpan, Pradakshina.

GANPATI VISARJAN

This is the final closing ritual of the grand festival. Ganesha idol is reverentially immersed in the water bodies wishing for the Lord of wisdom to return next year. People cry out loud “Ganapati Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukariya” while they head for immersion.

As much as people love welcoming Lord Ganesh to their house every year, it also makes them sad when he leaves. But both his welcome and his farewell are done with the same amount of devotion in the heart. Lord Ganesh is very commonly referred to as ‘Vighnaharta’ which means the one who removes all obstacles.