Ganesha Chaturthi
An annual festival honours Lord Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha
Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The
festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising
Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed
in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of
immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from
private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and
find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between
them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose
him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was
the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the
public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the
Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of
Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.
Street festivities in Hyderabad, India during the festival of Ganesha Chaturthi
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