India’s enthusiasm for and during Ganesh Chaturthi is unmatched. Months before the day, the shaping and carving of the elaborate and perfectly moulded Ganesh idols begins. As the weeks slip away, there is a frenzied rush of people thronging to their favourite expert to order their idol of the elephant-headed god. Homes are cleaned and beautifully decorated, pandals are constructed and embellished both indoors and in public, and invitations are sent out by the dozen. The otherwise harsh lines of religion are temporarily blurred as truck drivers and delivery personnel carefully transport Ganesha idols to their respective pandals, heedless of whether they celebrate the festival or not.
It is this spirit of generosity and togetherness that shines through most brightly in the weeks leading up to, and in the days during, Ganesh Chaturthi. Over ten days of making, buying and distributing sweets, exchanging recipes and reviews, planning and buying outfits, researching decoration ideas, and visiting pandals and the private idols of loved ones and friends – it’s a wonderfully jubilant time of year. Under the aegis of the beloved Lord Ganesha, the whole country unites to celebrate his arrival and subsequent departure.
While some cities’ celebration of the festival is on a larger scale than some others, the spirit of the festival remains equally high all over. Here, we’ll read about the celebration in a few Indian cities, and how each city has its own personal brand of Ganesh Chaturthi festivities.
Goa:
Collectively known for being the dream holiday destination of the whole country, and some well-informed people from overseas too, Goa has its own festivities associated with Ganesh Chaturthi too. Homes are cleaned and the traditional “matoli” is set up. In Goa, a matoli is a wooden canopy that is installed above Ganesha’s seat. The locals head into the forests to source the wood for the matoli, as well as gourds, pumpkins, bananas, coconuts and areca nuts. Once the matoli is constructed, it is decorated using flowers, leaves, roots and creepers.
Sweets known as neuriyos (pastry stuffed with a sweet filling) are prepared as an offering for the lord, and traditional vegetarian Goan dishes such as mugachi ghati (made of lentils) and chanyacho ross (a coconut-based curry) along with hot and crisp puris are served to the visiting guests.
And so Goan culture, known for its lassitude and warmth, makes plenty of room for fantastic Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations too!
Hyderabad:
There is much excitement for the festivities associated with Ganesh Chaturthi in the city of pearls. Hyderabad is home to the Khairatabad Ganesha which is installed in the Khairatabad locality of Hyderabad. The pandal here is visited by thousands of devotees over the eleven-day period that the festival is celebrated. The Ganesha installed here is known for being one of the tallest, sometimes measuring up to 60 feet, and the laddu placed in this Ganesha’s left hand is famous for its enormous size, sometimes weighing up to 6000 kilograms.
Some of the dishes prepared during Ganeshotsav are undrallu (steamed rice balls), panakam (drink made with jaggery and cardomom) and vadapappu (soaked moong lentils). On the final day of festivities, the Ganesha idols are immersed in the Hussain Sagar Lake.
Mumbai:
The celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai is simply awe-inspiring in its pomp and splendour. The level of energy throughout the eleven days remains at a constant high as devotees take great effort to visit as many of the countless pandals erected across the city as they can. Trucks and lorries carrying towering idols of Lord Ganesha, and sometimes even of his parents Lord Shiva and Parvati (Gauri), can be seen driving through every other lane in the days before the first. Expansive banners with brightly coloured paintings, sparkling banners, and flags are draped and hung around every nook and corner, and thousands and thousands of baskets of fresh flowers are used to be strung into even more garlands to decorate the canopy and pedestal where the idols will take seat.
Once the festivities begin, it is a thing of wonderfully sweet beauty to drive or walk past a pandal during working hours only to catch a swift glimpse of a brilliantly coloured and decorated Ganesha idol inside. Serpentine lines leading into the more famous pandals get longer and longer, the devotees waiting not showing no signs of fatigue or frustration. Volunteers serve sweets and prasad to departing devotees from enormous tubs filled with kilos of it.
Aside from the dancers and singers who train hard for Ganeshotsav, there are the dhol troupes who spend months on end practicing tirelessly. Carrying drums that are sometimes bigger than the person playing it, they set the fervent and incredibly passionate mood that lasts until the very last day of celebrations. Nobody is impervious to the fervid beat the drums set up, and the tremendous energy of the drummers is undeniably contagious as the crowds around them spontaneously break into dance.
The Ganpati mandals across Mumbai are too many to be counted. From smaller ones inside housing societies to immense tourist attractions that attract over a million devotees a day, such as the Lalbaugcha Raja, each and every idol of Lord Ganesha that is set up receives an equal amount of love and pious adoration from devotees. Every evening there are elaborate aartis accompanied by the traditional songs that have been sung for centuries with everyone present clapping to an exact rhythm with an ease that even the unpractised can boast of.
The most popular offerings to the lord are modaks (dumplings), specifically ukdiche modak (steamed dumplings stuffed with jaggery and coconut) and pedas (reduced milk solids sweetened with sugar and shaped into tiny balls) of all kinds. Also popular are laddus of several different varieties such as coconut laddus, boondi laddus, besan laddus and sesame laddus. Many pandals also serve devotees with a free meal, most often comprised of puris, potato curry, chickpeas curry, a rice preparation, and at least one kind of sweet or dessert. ‘Pandal-hopping’, as it is called, is a popular activity for the evenings and weekends when devotees go from pandal to pandal, seeking Ganesha’s blessings and availing of delicious sweets and snacks.
On the final day, the palpable vitality around the city is rather bittersweet. While everyone is sad to say goodbye to Lord Ganesha, beseeching with him to return soon, the exuberant vigour in the processions leading to the Arabian Sea for the immersion of the idols borders on unhinged. The dhol and dance troupes seem to be blessed with inexhaustible stamina that lasts until the next morning when some of the larger idols finally make it to the sea.
As the streets finally clear of traffic and the tired but happy devotees head home after eleven days of nonstop festivities, the city buzzes quietly as it resettles and takes a deep breath before the next set of celebrations begins.
Bengaluru:
The biggest Ganeshotsav event in Bengaluru is held in Basanvagudi every year. There are incredible performances of art, music, theatre and dance, and almost a million people gather to witness the rich display of culture and festivities every year. Acclaimed theatre groups, musicians, and dancers from not just Bengaluru, but from across the country, perform at the Utsav. The most well-known offering to Lord Ganesha which is then distributed among the devotees is panchakajjaya (a mixture of dessicated coconut, roasted Bengal gram powder, sugar, ghee and sesame).
Chennai:
In Chennai, the festival is called Vinayagar Chaturthi by the locals. Beautifully adorned idols are carried through the streets on palanquins on the way to the pandals they are installed in. Traditional, carnatic music dedicated to Lord Ganesha sets the mood for the cultural and religious extravaganza. Sweets like modakam (fried dumplings stuffed with jaggery and coconut) and kozhakatai (steamed dumplings stuffed with jaggery and coconut), along with savoury dishes like sundal (boiled chickpeas tempered with spices) are offered to the lord and distributed among devotees. The most famous Ganesha temples here are the Kapaleeshwar Temple and the Ucchi Pillayar Temple.
Delhi:
Delhi too welcomes Lord Ganesha for ten days, and there are a few must-visit Ganesha temples in and around the capital. Sri Vinayaka Temple in Noida with its south-Indian style of architecture is open throughout the day for devotees and is beautifully decorated during the festival; Sri Siddhivinayak Temple in Dwarka is one more that is worth a visit, and the Ganesha Temple in Connaught Place and Shri Subha Siddhi Vinayak in Mayur Vihar make for splendid sights for those looking for a taste and glimpse of true Ganesha fervour.
Curious to learn more about Lord Ganesha? Click here to dive into the fascinating stories and rich history surrounding this beloved deity.
