Festivals of India Contest

Satish sent the following entry before midnight of 25th October. Do read it.

MY FAVORITE FESTIVAL

There are so many festivals in India that it is really difficult to choose just
one. Each festival brings with it loads of joy and blessings from the gods. But
if asked to choose one festival that I personally enjoy the most, it would be
Ganesh chaturthi. Every thing about the festival, from the reason for which it
is celebrated to the way it is celebrated is just terrific. On this day lord
Ganesha is worshiped. In Hindu mythology lord Ganesha is considered top be the
most powerful of all the gods. He has a head of an elephant four hands and a
fat belly.
There is a long story behind why is it celebrated and that too on the specific
day of chaturhi(to understand what chathuthi means u will have to understand
the Hindu calendar). Here I will just give a brief summary of it.

Long time ago lord Ganesha was roaming on the moon the god of moon saw him and
made fun of his fat belly and hi appearance, this enraged the lord Ganesha and
he cursed the moon saying “ you are making fun of me because you think
you are very beautiful so I curse you that form today your beautiful face shall
be spoilt with black spots and whoever sees on the day of chathurthi shall be
plagued with bad luck the whole year.”
The moon god was very ashamed of the black spots and hid himself in a lake. The
nights became totally dark due to the absence of the moon. All the other gods
became very worried and went to the lord Vishnu to seek a solution. Lord Vishnu
listened to their pleas and said “ no body in the whole universe can
reverse the curse given by lord Ganesha so I think we should we all should go
to him and request him to forgive the moon god.” Hearing to the requests
of all the gods lord ganesha said “ even I canot take back my curse but
whoever worships on the day of chathurhi shall be granted with all they ask for
and whoever sees the moon on dvthiya of the same month shall have a great
year.” So started the tradition of worshiping lord Ganesha on this
day.

On the day of the festival all the members of the family wake up early take
head bath and wear sacred clothes before sitting for the prayer. People can
either offer prayers to an idol of Gnesha made of clay or silver. Lord Ganesha
loves to eat so a lot of delicious dishes are prepared the main one, which is
compulsory, is the moduk or the kargadabu, which is sweet dish. After offering
the prayers people go to their friends and relatives places to see the ganesha
at their places. Huge idols of lord Ganesha are also kept at a lot of places in
the city by different groups of people. The festival goes on for a stipulated
number of days after which if the idol kept is of clay is put into a lake or a
sea signifying that the Lord is returning to his home. Thus the festival ends.
There are lots of details that have been skipped because if all the details
have to be given it will be quite a task.

The best part of the festival is no matter how many times in a year you meet
some people you will surely meet them on this day and thus helps a lot in
building up relations. One other thing that is good about the festival is the
fact that people from all the religions enjoy the festival and thus it also
helps in bridging the gaps in minds of people. But believe me you will never
understand why is this festival so great until you personally see the
enthusiasm and the belief of the people towards the festival. I just hope this
small write up will at least has help you in imagining it if have not witnessed
it.

-Satish bas


##Dr.Taher##



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