One of the biggest festivals in India is associated with one of the most prominent deities in India. The Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated as the birthday of one of the sons of Lord Shiva. This festival generally falls during the month of September, and is one of the grandest festivities in the Indian subcontinent. It is celebrated with utmost intensity in the North West and South India. It is called by different names in different regions come like Vinayaka Chaturthi in the west and south west, and Pillayar Chaturthi in the south, especially Tamil Nadu. Ganesha is considered to be the remover of all obstacles and also the god of wisdom and intelligence. The festival marks the Thanksgiving and the celebration of everything that Ganesha stands for.
In all the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi, we should remember the national leader Lokmanya Tilak who was responsible for making Ganesh Chaturthi mainstream festival today. It was one of the first ways in which she gathered people for organising activities against the British Empire! Little did we know that there is a lot of feeling of Patriotism that is involved in this festival?
Ganesh Chaturthi festival has a very rich history. It has been celebrated ever since the time of Maharaja Chhatrapati Shivaji. However in the medieval days, it lost its lustre, and in the recent days, it has regained its importance, thanks to the efforts of Lokmanya Tilak. Even as early as the 1850s, it was one of the most major celebrations in Bombay, and was considered by many historians as one of the first occasions to bridge the gap between the upper caste and lower caste people. The Legacy of this festival is even a regular feature in the Bollywood movies of today, synonymous with celebration and dance!
The festival progresses from very subtle notes to a realm of grandeur. A small pandal is featured in every home decorated with small clay statue of Lord Ganesha. This statue is worship every morning and evening, with a lot of offerings of flowers, strands of green grasses and also a speciality sweet called modak or Kolukattai. The Modaks are India's answer to momos, but in a very religious fashion.
At the next level, there are a lot of public celebrations as well. There are a lot of large pandals installed in public places that give Vinayaka or Ganesha of trendiness. You can see a lot of different versions of Ganesha including but not limited to Bahubali, and even Facebook and WhatsApp. A lot of celebrations happen around these installations like dancers, songs, and even bhajans that echo the praise “Ganpati Bappa Morya!” These places are perfect platforms for budding Artist and stage performers as well. It also has an economic connotation as there is a lot of shopping that happens around the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi!
During the ceremony of immersion, the Ganesh Chaturthi takes a whole new avatar of grandeur. The processions of the idol of Ganesha are organised in every major city in India. The idols are then moved to be immersed in major water bodies in that particular City. For the cities like Mumbai and Chennai, it is the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal that come to the rescue. For cities like Hyderabad, it is the lakes like Hussain Sagar that come as the immersion points. The procession of taking Ganesha to the water bodies is one of the grandest that you will ever see!
This procession is accompanied by bursting of crackers and lighting of Fireworks with the Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the most important occasions where crackers find their relevance. The crackers, which were once considered difficult to buy for the Ganesh Chaturthi, are now available online and you can order them at your convenience, and they also are available at the best prices without compromising on the quality. Online cracker retailers like bijili.in deliver good quality crackers to any place across the country, and it makes them and ideal shop for you to buy crackers online on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi!
