Ganesh Chaturthi
Lord
Ganesha Chaturthy
About
Lord Ganesh Chaturthi festival
......This
festival of Lord Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated the
states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
and many other parts of India. Started by Chatrapati
Shivaji Maharaja, the great Maratha ruler, to promote
culture and nationalism, the festival was revived by
Lokmanya Tilak (a freedom fighter) to spread the message
of freedom struggle and to defy the British who had
banned public assemblies. The festival gave the Indians
a feeling of unity and revived their patriotic spirit
and faith. This public festival formed the background
for political leaders who delivered speeches to inspire
people against the Western rule. This Lord Ganesh Chaturthi
festival is so
popular that the preparations begin months in advance.
Lord Ganesha
statues installed in street corners and in homes, and
elaborate arrangements are made for lighting,
decoration, mirrors and the most common of flowers.
Pujas are performed daily. The
artists who make the idols of Ganesh compete with each
other to make bigger and more magnificent and elegant
idols. The relevantly larger ones are anything from 10
meters to 30 meters in height. These statues are then
carried on decorated floats to be immersed in the sea
after one, three, five, seven and ten days. Thousands of
processions converge on the beaches to immerse the holy
idols in the sea. This procession and immersion is
accompanied by drum- beats, devotional songs and
dancing.
History of Ganesha
Chaturthi ....Lord Ganesh
Chaturthi is celebrated on the birthday of Lord Ganesh
(Ganesha), the god of wisdom and prosperity on the
fourth day of the moons bright fortnight, or period from
new moon in the lunar month of Bhadrapada. The
celebration of Lord Ganesh Chaturthi continue for five,
seven, or ten days. Some even stretch it to twenty one
days, but ten the most popularly celebrated. In the
tradition of the right hand path the first day is the
most important. In the left hand path tradition the
final day is most important.
Lord Ganesha
is the god of wisdom and prosperity and is invoked
before the beginning of any auspicious work by the
Hindus. It is believed that for the fulfillment of one's
desires, Ganesha's blessing is absolutely necessary. According
to the mythology, he is the son of Shiva and Parvati,
brother of Kartikeya - the general of the gods, Lakshmi
- the goddess of wealth and Saraswati-the goddess of
learning. There are numerous stories in Hindu mythology,
associated with the birth of this elephant-headed god,
whose vehicle is the Mushak or rat and who loves Modaks.
Legend
has it that Parvati created Lord Ganesha out of the
sandalwood dough that she used for her bath and breathed
life into him. Letting him stand guard at the door she
went to have her bath. When her husband, Shiva returned,
the child who had never seen him stopped him. Shiva
severed the head of the child and entered his house.
Parvati, learning that her son was dead, was distraught
and asked Shiva to revive him. Shiva cut off the head of
an elephant and fixed it on the body of Ganesha.
Another
tale tells of how one day the Gods decided to choose
their leader and a race was to be held between the
brothers- Kartikeya and Ganesh. Whoever took three
rounds of the earth first would be made the Ganaadhipati
or the leader. Kartikeya seated on a peacock as his
vehicle, started off for the test. Lord Ganesh was given a
rat, which moved swiftly. Lord Ganesh realised that the test
was not easy, but he would not disobey his father. He
reverently paid obeisance to his parents and went around
them three times and thus completed the test before
Kartikeya. He said, " my parents pervade the whole
universe and going around them, is more than going round
the earth." Everybody was pleasantly surprised to hear
Ganesha's logic and intelligence and hence he came to be
known as the Ganaadhipati or leader, now referred to as
Ganpati.
