Ganesh Chaturthi 2024: How and why is the Hindu festival celebrated?

Elephant-headed Ganesha is known as the god of wisdom

People carry the idol of Ganesha from the workshop to pandal, a temporary shelter, ahead of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India. AP

The Indian festival of Ganesh Chaturthi celebrates the birth of Ganesh or Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity of wisdom and prosperity in Hindu mythology who is also recognised as the god of new beginnings and the remover of obstacles.

Also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi, the festival is widely celebrated in India and Nepal, as well as by the Hindu diaspora in other parts of the world, including in the UAE.

The festival is celebrated for 10 days and its date varies based on the lunar calendar, but it typically falls in August or September. This year Ganesh Chaturthi starts on September 7.

The 10-day period encapsulates the arrival of the beloved deity who offers wisdom and blessings to his devotees and then departs to his heavenly abode, with many of the rituals mirroring the cycle of life, from birth to death and rebirth, as per Hindu beliefs.

Why does Ganesha have an elephant's head?

Various versions of Ganesha's birth exists in Hindu literature. The most well-known is how Ganesha was created as a boy by goddess Parvati who, one day, tasks him to guard her chamber as she is preparing for her bath. When Lord Shiva, goddess Parvati's husband and one of the principal deities in Hinduism, wishes to meet her, he is stopped by Ganesha, who was unaware of his identity.

An enraged Shiva beheads Ganesha. Overcome with grief and anger, Parvati threatens to destroy the universe. Brahma, the creator, then pleads with her and she consents under two conditions – that Ganesha be brought back to life and that he be foremost among all the other gods.

Shiva then instructs his devotees to bring the head of the first creature they find with its head facing the north. They bring back the head of an elephant. Brahma places it on the boy's body and brings him back to life.

How is the festival celebrated?

To celebrate, some families keep an idol of Ganesha in their homes for between 36 hours and 10 days, and welcome family and friends to visit for darshan, or prayers. Several temples, too, erect colourful pandals open to the public. Some of them house idols of up to 20 feet.

The beginning of the worship is called pranapratishtha, which is a ritual to invoke life into the idol. What follows is termed shhodashopachara, or ways of paying tribute.

These include daily prayers in the morning and evening, and offerings of flowers, fruits, incense and sweetmeats, particularly modak, a sugary dumpling considered one of Ganesha's favourite dishes. Other observances include the chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, as well as rituals such as anointing idols with red sandalwood paste.

At the end of the stipulated period comes the visarjan or immersion, whereby the idols are paraded on the streets, accompanied by music and dancing, and carried to water bodies where they are immersed. This ritual represents Ganesha's journey back to his celestial abode, Mount Kailas, where his parents, the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati, live.

Given the hundreds of thousands of idols that are put into rivers, lakes and ponds, authorities have started regulating the immersion day because of the impact it has on the environment.

Several idol-makers now create figurines from biodegradable materials such as clay, rather than plaster of Paris, while some families submerge their statues in a water barrel at home.