Ganesh Puja is celebrated chiefly on Ganesh Chaturthi, also known by other names such as Vinayak Chaturthi and Ganeshotsav. The Hindu festival celebrates the arrival of Ganesh to Earth from Kailash Parvat. It is marked by the installation and worship of the Ganesh idols in people’s homes. Huge pandals are erected before the arrival of the festival and Ganesh clay idols are installed in them.

Pandits chant Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, offer prayers and Prasad (offerings), and observe Vrat (fasting) for the day. The Prasad usually consists of sweets like Modak, which are believed to be the favorite of God Ganesh. The festival ends 10 days after the start, where the idols are carried in a public procession with music, dance and group chants. The idols are then submerged in a body of water, like the rivers or seas. Once the clay idol dissolves in water, Ganesh is believed to return to Kailash Parvat to Shiva and Parvati.

When Goddess Parvati was about to take a bath with turmeric paste, she sculpted a statue from the turmeric paste as she wanted a child. She nurtured it, loved and protected the baby as if it was her own flesh and blood.

Once, when she was about to take a bath, she instructed the child to act as a gatekeeper and not allow anyone inside. Meanwhile, God Shiva, her husband and consort, happened to be on his way to visit her. He encountered the little child trying to block his entry to the gateway. Shiva got frustrated after several attempts at trying to get the child to allow the entry and exclaimed in anger that it was his house.

Still, the child showed no sign of relenting as his mother was having a bath. That made God Shiva so angry that he beheaded the child in a fight. When Goddess Parvati came out after her bath and saw the child, she was deeply aggrieved and started crying. After she explained everything to God Shiva, he decided to restore life in the child.

Hence for the purpose, he sent someone to retrieve the head of the first living being that he saw as per the first rays of the sun. The man couldn’t find anyone else except an elephant, so he cut his head and brought it back. After the head was placed on the beheaded body, he was known as God Ganesh. God Shiva granted him a boon that no puja would be complete without worshipping him and a puja could only be successful if he was worshipped initially.

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