Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi marks the birth of Ganesha on the fourth day (Chaturthi) of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada (August–September). Parvati, the consort of Shiva, wished to bathe in privacy and fashioned a boy from sandalwood paste, breathing life into him and stationing him at the door. Shiva, returning home and finding the boy refusing him entry, beheaded him in anger. Parvati's grief was such that Shiva, to console her, sent his attendants to bring the head of the first creature they encountered. They returned with the head of an elephant; Shiva fixed it to the boy's body and revived him. Ganesha — the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati — became the lord of beginnings, the remover of obstacles, the patron of writers, learning, and new ventures.

The ten-day festival, in its modern form, was popularised by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1893 Bombay as a public gathering during the British era — a permitted festival around which nationalist sentiment could be organised. Today it is the largest public festival of western India, especially Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Idols of Ganesha — ranging from a few inches at home to twenty feet in public pandals — are installed on Chaturthi morning with pran-pratishtha (the invocation of life into the idol). Modak (a sweet dumpling) is offered, along with bilva and durva grass; devotees visit through the day chanting 'Ganpati Bappa Morya'.

Each day for the next ten, two morning and evening aartis are performed; bhajans and discourses fill the evenings. On the tenth day — Anant Chaturdashi — the idols are taken in procession through the streets and immersed in a river, lake, or sea (visarjan), symbolising Ganesha's return to his celestial home with the devotees' troubles carried away with him.