Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, is widely worshipped as the supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. Ganesha Chaturthi (Ganesha Festival) is the day in which the Lord Ganesha is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees.
The legend (borrowed from Wikipedia):
Lord Shiva (the Hindu God of resolution) was away at a war. His wife Pavarti wanted to bathe but had no one to guard the door to her house. She conceived of the idea of creating a son who could guard the door for her. Parvati created Ganesha out of the sandalwood paste that she used for her bath and breathed life into the figure. She then set him to stand guard at her door and instructed him not to let anyone enter.
When Lord Shiva returned from the battle Ganesha did not know him and stopped Shiva from entering Parvati's chamber. Shiva, enraged by Ganesh’s impudence, drew his sword and cut off Ganesha's head. Pavarti emerged to find Ganesha decapitated and flew into a rage. She took on the form of the Goddess Kali and threatened destruction to the three worlds of Heaven, Earth, and the subterranean earth.
Lord Shiva, in an attempt to pacify Parvati, sent out his ganas (minions) to bring back the head of the first living being whose head faced the north (the cardinal direction associated with wisdom). This first living thing happened to be an elephant. Shiva placed the elephant head on the trunk of Parvati's son and breathed life into him. Parvati was overjoyed and embraced her son, the elephant-headed boy whom Shiva named Ganesha, the Lord of his ganas.
Specifics vary by region, but the Ganesha festival is celebrated for 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 days. These specific durations seem to be determined by the lunar cycle and are left to personal choice for the celebrants. To this westerner the festival seems to be part Christmas and part Mardi Gras, with maybe just a bit of Halloween thrown in.
Our driver took us to one of the workshops at which the Ganesha idol statues are created by local artisans. All the statues are mad from the same raw materials (straw, burlap, clay, paint) and then sculpted and painted by hand.
The first part of the festival is choosing the Ganesha statue. I will liken this to picking out a Christmas tree (and hope the analogy is not blasphemous in any way). There are "Ganesha ido statue" lots all over the city. People wander from lot to lot looking for just the right one. There is every size and shape imaginable. The Ganeshas have different outfits, are painted different (usually wildly vibrant) colors, and are often posed with either his mother and/or his father, each of which can have their own variations. Here are but a few examples:
The little blonde girl in the following photo is Erik's & Helen's (our production manager & wife) daughter Annika. Her little brother August is also very blonde; they always attract a great deal of attention from the locals. . .
The second part of the festival is the display the Ganesha idol. It would seem that small neighborhoods of people will pool their money to buy a statue that they then display at the end of their block or alley. The statues remain covered until the appropriate hour on the first day of the festival. Once the statues are uncovered, people wander from neighborhood to neighborhood looking at all the different idols. Each neighborhood also decorates their street with lights, plays Festival music from loudspeakers, and cooks a few delicacies that get passed out to all the visitors (kind of like Halloween? maybe more like looking at the Christmas windows in the downtown department stores if the department stores passed out food).
The festival is a chance to wear one's finest clothes. . .
The final step, once the chosen celebration/viewing period is done, is to immerse the statue in water. This returns the divinity of Lord Ganesha (as represented by the idol) back to the earth, and represents the cycle of creation and dissolution in Nature. The immersion is done at the local lakes. These venues become very large street parties (a la Mardi Gras) as people parade their statues down the street on their way to the immersion points: lots of music, lots of singing and carrying on, lots of car horns. It's quite a sight and sound. The larger idols are loaded onto cranes and then swung out and into the lakes.
No comments:
Post a Comment