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Each year in the late summer, the Hinduist world honors Lord Ganesh, the god with the elephant head and one of the most beloved deities within the Hindu pantheon. Throughout ten days, Hindus across the globe celebrate the Ganesha Chaturthi. This joyful and picturesque festival develops in private households and public spaces and ends near rivers or water pools following a series of precise rituals. The festival commemorates the rebirth of Lord Ganesh, and it is traditionally associated with abundance and personal fulfillment. Ganesha is the god of wealth, wisdom, and prosperity, and Hindus believe that praying to Lord Ganesh will bring knowledge, action, and, ultimately, success. This paper will provide the background to understand the Ganesha Chaturthi celebration and show how the festival’s meaning has shifted from a socio-political dimension to the commodification of sacredness.
Lord Ganesh is the youngest son of Shiva and Parvat and one of Hinduism’s most popular gods. His name is also spelled Ganesha, and he is also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka. His birth is described in several myths. According to one of the most popular stories, Ganesh is the son of Parvati alone (Das, 2018). In this tradition, the goddess shapes a child out of her body’s dirt to guard her door while having a bath, and Ganesh is eventually beheaded when he has tried to stop Shiva from entering. To placate Parvati’s rage, Shiva brings the boy back to life by attaching an elephant’s head to the boy’s body. However, one tusk broke during the operation, and Ganesh is traditionally represented holding the damaged part. The myth of Ganesh’s birth has a symbolic meaning that goes beyond the dramatic story.
Parvati shaped Ganesh from her dirt during a process of purification, therefore, inviting the deity. With his inability to recognize Shiva’s divinity, Ganesh represents the earthbound awareness and ego. The head is the source of attachment and sorrows that obstacles the way towards truth and peace (“Ganesh Chaturthi 2020,” 2020). Hence, Ganesh’s beheading is the compassionate act of divinity to eradicate the ego that hinders the merging with the absolute. Further, the elephant’s head symbolizes mindfulness and wisdom, the inescapable steps towards enlightenment. Traditionally, Ganesh symbolizes prosperity, removal of obstacles, writing, and good fortune (Sharma, 2020). The cult of the Hindu god has changed over the centuries, and Ganesh Chaturthi is the most important celebration of the birth and rebirth of the god.
The festival starts on the fourth day of Bhadra’s month of the Hindu calendar, corresponding to August-September of the Gregorian time. Overall, the anniversary symbolizes regeneration: praying Ganesh and following the rituals during the festival is believed to free the devotees from sins, give them wisdom, and help fulfill their wishes. The celebration begins with welcoming Ganesh represented by clay-painted idols set in the households and installing temporary sheds, called pandals, outdoors. Four main rituals are performed during the following ten days. During the Pranapratishtha, priests and devotees sing mantras to invoke life in the idols. In the ritual of Shhodashopachara, prayers and devotional offers are tributed to the idols. Besides chanting from the sacred texts Vedas and Upanishads, the idols are offered flowers, sandalwood paste, and Ganesh’s favorite food (Sharma, 2020). The Uttarpuja is a respectful farewell to Ganesh; during the last ceremony, Ganpati Visarjan, the idols are immersed in water and dissolve, symbolizing Ganesh’s return to Mount Kailash, where his parents Shiva and Parvati live. Public ceremonies with music, chanting, dancing, and fireworks are held throughout the whole festival. Ganesh Chaturthi’s origins are uncertain, and the festival has changed its nature and served different scopes over the centuries.
The ruler Shivaji, the Maratha empire founder in 1674, introduced celebrations devoted to Ganesh in Pune to promote Hindu traditions and contrast the coeval Muslim cultural domination. At the end of the nineteenth century, the nationalist leader Lokmanya Tilak used the festival for political purposes (Jadhav, 2019). Tilak recognized Ganesh’s nature as the god of all Indians and popularized Ganesh Chaturthi to unite a population divided into castes and create a nationalistic fervor against British rule. The festival became the occasion for gatherings and favored the circulation of the nationalist ideal. Although Ganesh Chaturthi has lost its political connotation over the years, it still plays a crucial role in promoting social cohesion by gathering people from different castes, classes, religions, and geographical areas (Jadhav, 2019). Recently, the western lifestyle spread has caused a further shift in the festival’s nature. Modernization and technology have led to the commodification of sacredness and, through a subtle marketing strategy, commercial products are sacralized during ritual processes and used as gadgets among personal and professional networks (Ayutacorn, 2018). The nature of the modern Ganesh Chaturthi is still religious and social, but the political implications are lost, and intense commercialization has emerged.
Ganesh Chaturthi is a ten-day festival that celebrates the birth and rebirth of Lord Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of the Hindu pantheon. The divinity is most revered in India and Hindu communities worldwide, and many people attend the celebrations. While Ganesh is traditionally associated with wisdom and prosperity, the myth has a strong symbolic meaning, connected to purification, mindfulness, and enlightenment. The festival’s protocol follows precise rituals ending with the immersion of Ganesh’s idols in water, where they dissolve. Over history, the festival offered the pretest to raise a national identity and unity among the various castes of Indian society. Today, the political implications have been replaced by marketing strategies, yet maintaining the religious and social aspects.
References
Ayutacorn, A. (2018). Re-enchantment of the Ganesha cult: Action at a distance through social nedia [PDF document]. Web.
Das, S. (2018). Ganesha, the Hindu god of success. Learn Religions. Web.
Ganesh Chaturthi 2020: Know why do we celebrate Ganesh chaturthi celebrations and its spiritual significance.(2020). The Times Now. Web.
Jadhav, R. T. (2019). Sociological study of Ganesh festival in Pune City [Doctoral Dissertation, Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth]. TMV Digital Repository. Web.
Sharma, S. (2020). Ganesh Chaturthi 2020: History, significance, date and time of the festival. Hindustan Times. Web.
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