Goa Voyages :: Festivals of Goa :: Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi

The Ganesh festival is one packed with fun and frolic, a time for prayer as well as pageantry. Its an occasion to clean and decorate the house, to prepare to receive the divine guest Lord Ganesh (also spelt as Ganesha), to get together with family and friends, to exchange gifts, and to rejoice the birth of the Lord with new attire, dance and music.

As year after year, Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in the Goa culminates with the harvesting season. Ganesh's in various sizes and forms usually adorn street corners in gaily decorated Pandals, which are put up by local associations/ merchant groups in the city areas. Preparations normally begin several days in advance

The festival of Ganesh or Vinayak Chaturthi, is the day on which Lord Ganesh was born. It is the most joyous event of the year. Throughout India the festival is celebrated with much enthusiasm and devotion. In Goa, like Maharashtra, the festival is celebrated for upto ten days. It is said that Ganesh was the creation of Goddess Parvati, who breathed life into a doll, which she made out of the dough she was using for her bath.

Legend
Ganesh Chaturthi festival comes on the 4th day of Bhadarva Shukla-Paksh of Hindu calendar in (August/September). Ladoos (sweets) are distributed, milk is offered to idols of Lord Ganesh at home and at temples, and worshippers visit Ganesh temples for Ganesh Puja. This elephant-headed god, vehicle is the Mooshak or rat and loves Modaks (round sweets called Ladoos).

Myths & Beliefs of Ganesh Chaturthi
There is very popular legend regarding why one shudn't look at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi. Lord Ganesh 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.

In India, Ganesh is worshipped first on all auspicious occasions, whether it is a marriage or a religious function. Ganesh 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.

Ganesh 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 Ganesh 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 Ganesh. These tokens please him and he therefore brings more beauty, money and food to the family.

The Celebrations
Elaborate arrangements are made for lighting and decoration and Ganesh 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 Ganesh are carried in grand procession for 'Ganesh Visarjan' accompanied by the sound of devotional songs and drums.

Location:
Throughout Goa

Duration:
10 Days

Also Known As:
Vinayak Chaturthi


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