The birth of Lord Ganesha is on the 4th day of the bright half of Bhadrapad Shukla (August / September). This festival is celebrated for 10 days from Ganesh Chaturthi [birth date] to Anant Chaturdashi [the final 10th day of his immersion]. Everyone loves this deity with his curving trunk, potbelly and big flat ears. He is the benevolent protector of the innocent, yet the ruthless destroyer of evil. His mount is a rat.
Anant Chaturthi is the tenth/eleventh day after Ganesh Chaturthi which falls on the 14th day of the bright Bhadrapada (the sixth month of Hindu calendar). All the Ganesh idols brought into homes and communities are immersed in the sea or nearby lakes and rivers. On this day, people travel to the waterfront with the idols, large and small, dancing and singing aloud a slogan: “ganpati bappa morya, agle baras to jaldi aa” (“father Ganpati, come again next year”),
in large processions. Lord Ganesha is departed, only to be welcomed the next year with equal excitement.
In several states of India, but especially in Maharashtra clay idols of Ganesh in varying sizes are made and sold. The idols are purchased and brought home the day previous to Ganesh Chaturthi, which is the day of Hartalik when women keep fast and invoke the blessings of goddess Parvati, who is Ganesh’s mother.
The idols are kept as a divine guest for one and a half, five, seven, or ten days, after which the idols are taken out ceremoniously.Aarti is performed everyday till the immersion day.This Lord Ganesh is very fond of sweets and hence khir, panchamrit, fruits and sweets and specially modaks are placed before him as “Naivedya” or “Bhog”. After the ritual worship this “Bhog” is distributed as “Prasad”.
Legend behind the origin of Ganesh
Centuries ago during a war between the Gods and the Demons, Lord Shiva was away for a long time. His wife, Goddess Parvati, afraid of being alone for an extended period used her divine powers and created a son, Ganesh, and gave him the responsibility of protecting the house. When Lord Shiva and his army, returned victorious to his home, Parvati was in her bath, and Ganesh had been strictly instructed not to allow anyone in. Angered by Ganesh’s refusal to allow him in to the house, Lord Shiva and his army chopped off the boy’s head. When Parvati came out of her bath, she was shocked and grieved to see her son dead. Lord Shiva, to pacify, her proclaimed that the head of Ganesh would be replaced by that of the first creature that came up the hill. As luck would have it the first visitor to the hill was an elephant and his head was promptly cut off and placed on that of Lord Ganesh, and life was restored to the son of Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati. To pacify his wife further and compensate for the act of killing his own son, Lord Shiva bestowed upon Ganesh the powers of a God and blessed him that henceforth no activity will begin without invoking your name and blessings. Since then, it is said, no new venture – the inauguration of accompany, the opening of a shop, the foundation of a building, entering a new home – is deemed complete by Hindus without a Ganesh puja.
“Gaj’ means elephant and “anan” means head, so Parvati’s son became known as “Gajanan”. Shankar made him the deity of his armies and thus his name became Ganesh [“Gan" = army, "Ish" = god] or Ganpati, which means “The Lord of Hosts”.
Legend behind Anant
According to Hindu Mythology, there was a Brahmin named Sumant. From his wife Diksha he had a daughter named Sushila. After the death of Diksha, Sumant married Karkash who was not caring to Sushila. She gave a lot of trouble to her. Sushila got married to Kaundinya and decided to leave the house to avoid the nuisance of her step mother. On the way, Kaundinya went to a river to take bath and Sushila joined a women group who were worshipping “Anant”. Sushila was very curious to know the reason of worshipping. The women explained her, the purpose of this vow to obtain divinity and wealth, and are kept for 14 years.
Sushila decided to take the “Anant Vow” and slowly they became very rich. One day Kaundinya, noticed Anant string on Sushila’s left hand. This string is usually tied on the left hand by women to observe the vow. When Kaundinya heard the story of the Anant vow, he was displeased and said that they had become rich, not for Anant but for his knowledge and efforts. He then took the Anant String from Sushila’s hand and threw it into the fire.
Soon after this incident, they were reduced to extreme poverty. Kaundinya realized the effect of the Anant and hence decided to undergo rigorous penance until the appearance of the God himself. He went into the forest. There, he saw tree full of mangoes but was covered with worms. He asked the tree if he had seen Anant but he got a negative reply. Then he asked lakes, cow, donkey, elephant but nobody could respond him positively. At last he prepared a rope to hang himself. But suddenly Anant appeared in the form of an old Brahmin and advised Kaundinya that if he made the 14 years vow, he would get back all his wealth and happiness.
