Vinayaka Chavithi - A festival devoted to Lord Ganesha

Vinayaka Chavithi is a festival celebrated to pray Lord Ganesha who is worshipped to ensure new beginnings and avoid all hurdles in the path of success. In the year 2018, it was celebrated on September 13th. 

Like Diwali, this festival is our favorite where the whole family celebrates together. We do pooja together as a family by offering different fruits to God Ganesha. We install a clay Ganesha, offer different naivedyams (food) and worship the God to avoid all hurdles in our life and grant all our wishes. 

Children who are going to school place their books before God and pray for the success in education. Here are my earlier posts about the Pooja: 

Vinayaka Chavithi Celebrations in Andhra style

Vinayaka Chavithi

This is a 11-day festival where the Ganesh idol is worshipped daily by offering naivedyam every day. Major cities like Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad celebrate it very well. You can see Ganesh idol installed in almost every lane/ road. On 11th day, the Ganesh idol is immersed in any lake or water body. 

How do you celebrate Ganesh Chathurdhi/ Vinayaka Chavithi? Do let me know in comments. 

Happy Vinayaka Chavithi. May God shower you with his blessings.

Until next time,

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Vinayaka Chavithi festival

Today is Vinayaka Chavithi and it is an important festival in our household where the whole family contributes to the puja and participates in the celebration.

Vinayaka is considered to be a God who will remove all obstacles. Ganesh is another name to him and he uses a mouse as a vehicle. He is depicted as a person with the head of an elephant in mythology.

From childhood, this festival has a special place in our hearts and my sister and myself used to eagerly wait for this festival. Purchasing a new dress is kind of a madatory. We used to purchase different types of fruits, flowers, different types of leaves (patri) and an idol of Ganesh made from mud. We take head bath on Ganesh Chathurdhi wearing new dresses, decorate our homes with flower garlands at the entrance with mango leaves bunch. We clean our pooja area, place the mud Ganesh idol on a stand, tie palavalli(a wooden construction to tie fruits) above the idol. We prepare special dishes to offer to Ganesha like undrallu, talukalu (jaggery sweet with rice powder), panakam (drink with water, jaggery and pepper powder), vadapappu (soaked moong daal), chalividi (sweet with jaggery and rice powder) before pooja. Children place their books before pooja with a swasthik marked with turmeric paste and pray to God to make them study well without any failures and obstacles.We all do pooja and read a story about Ganesha and give haarathi (camphor light).

This Ganesha idol will be kept at home for 1 or 3 or 5 or 7 or 9 or 11 days and then will be merged in any lake(nimajjanam). This festival is very famous and celebrated well especially in Hyderabad and Mumbai. Very large Ganesha idols are prepared for the occasion and large processions will be held before merging them in a lake, which is called nimajjanam.

So, that's about the festival and its importance in our culture. Look at these photos from my archive of Vinayaka Chavithi Pooja.

Happy Ganesh Chathurdi to all :-) May God bless you all with happiness and good health on this occasion.

Until next time,