If you haven't Checked out the stories preceding this Post then Please do so :)
If you haven't read the history of Lord Ganesha You should Check out this Blog Post.
Well that was the history / Myth,. However today, Ganeshotsav is celebrated in a huge way in India. Especially so it is in Mumbai, the Financial Capital of India. Ganeshotsav wasnt always huge however.
Lets check out the history of how ganeshotsav starting becoming big in Mumbai.
It was a hundred years ago that BalGangadhar Lokmany Tilak visited the Keshavji Mandal in Mumbai.
If you haven't read the history of Lord Ganesha You should Check out this Blog Post.
Well that was the history / Myth,. However today, Ganeshotsav is celebrated in a huge way in India. Especially so it is in Mumbai, the Financial Capital of India. Ganeshotsav wasnt always huge however.
Lets check out the history of how ganeshotsav starting becoming big in Mumbai.
It was a hundred years ago that BalGangadhar Lokmany Tilak visited the Keshavji Mandal in Mumbai.
Ganesh Chaturthi
It is not known when and how Ganesh Chaturthi was first celebrated.Ganesh festival was being celebrated as a public event in Pune since1630–1680. After some years, Ganesh festival lost state patronage and became a private family celebration again in Maharashtra till its revival by Indian freedom fighter and social reformer Lokmanya Tilak.
The public festival as celebrated in Maharashtra today, was introduced by Bhausaheb Laxman Javale in 1892 by installing first Sarvajanik (Public) Ganesh idol. In 1893 Lokmanya Tilak praised the concept of Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav in his newspaper, Kesari, and the next year he installed a Ganesh idol in Kesari Wada too. Tilak's efforts transformed the annual domestic festival into a large, well-organized public event. Tilak recognized the wide appeal of the deity Ganesha as "the god for everybody", and popularized Ganesh Chaturthi as a national festival in order "to bridge the gap between the caste Brahmins and 'non-Brahmins' and find a context in which to build a new grassroots unity between the Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesh in pavilions, and also established the practice of submerging the idols in rivers, sea, or other pools of water on the tenth day after Ganesh Chaturthi.
Under Tilak's encouragement, the festival facilitated community participation and involvement in the form of intellectual discourses, poetry recitals, performances of plays, musical concerts, and folk dances. It served as a meeting ground for people of all castes and communities in times when, in order to exercise control over the population, the British discouraged social and political gatherings
Celebration at Home
Ganesh Chaturthi is an important festival of Maharashtra. It is celebrated by most Hindu households of Maharashtra. In Maharashtra, most Hindu families install their own small clay statues for worship on Ganesh Chaturthi. The idol is worshiped in every morning and evening until the departure. The worship involves various offerings to the idol including flowers and durva. Each durva bunch has 21 shoots and the shoots have either three or five strands. Other offerings like modak also have to number 21 in Ganesh worship, The daily worship ceremonies ends with the worshipers singing the Aarti in honor of Ganesh, other Gods and saints. The Ganesh aarti sung in Maharashtra was composed by the 17th century, saint Samarth Ramdas. As per the tradition of their respective families, the domestic celebrations come to an end after 1(1/2), 3, 5, 7 or 11 days when the statue is taken in a procession to a large body of water such as a lake, river or the sea for immersion. Due to environmental concerns, a number of families now avoid the large water bodies and instead let the clay statue disintegrate in a bucket or tub of water at home. After a few days the clay is used in the home garden. In some cities, a public eco-friendly process is used for immersion
Public Celebrations
Public celebrations of the festival are hugely popular especially in Maharashtra. These are organised by local youth groups , neighborhood associations or group of traders. The local Festival Committees vie with each other to put up the biggest statue and the best pandal. The festival is also the time for cultural activities like singing and theater performances, orchestra and community activities like free medical checkup, blood donation camps, and charity for the poor.
Today Ganesh Chaturthi is seen as a very important festival which provides some much needed entertainment. It is also a stage for local businesses and local people.
In the Next post, I will post some images of Ganpati Mandals. Make sure to check it out Guys :) You will love the pictures.
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