Ganesh Chathurthi Celebrations and Recipes

Today is Ganesh Chathurthi which is one of the most popular festivals in India.. It is celebrated in a lot of places and in many different ways.. Some other names of this great festivals are Vinayaka Chathurthi / Pillayar Chathurthi.. Ganesh Chathurthi is celebrated as the birthday (rebirth) for Lord Ganesha.

 

From wiki – “It is believed that Lord Ganesh bestows his presence on earth for all his devotees during this festival. It is the day Shiva declared his son Ganesha as superior to all the gods, barring Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva and Parvati. Ganesha is widely worshipped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune and traditionally invoked at the beginning of any new venture or at the start of travel. The festival, also known as Ganeshutsav ("festival of Ganesha") is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Bhaadrapada, starting on the shukla chaturthi (fourth day of the waxing moon period). The date usually falls between 19 August and 20 September. While celebrated all over India, it is most elaborate in Maharashtra, Gujarat, TamilNadu, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Outside India, it is celebrated widely in Nepal and by Hindus in the United States, Canada, Mauritius,^[1] Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Fiji, Trinidad & Tobago, and Guyana”
We celebrate Ganesh Chathurthi with pooja, arati and nivedhanam.. We try to incorporate all the favorite items of Lord Ganesha, much similar to what we do on our kid's birthday. Try to bring all the kid likes.. So we offer some delicious nivedhanam, offer arugam pul, offer erukam poo garland, coconut, banana.. etc

Our nivedhanam menu for this festival includes -
 

Vella Kozhukattai - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/2012/09/vella-kozhukattai.html

Uppu Kozhukattai - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.com/2013/09/uppu-kozhukattaiganesh-chathurthi.html,

Ellu poorna Kozhukattai – Recipe coming Soon,

 

 

Kozhukattai Sundal - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/2013/08/kozhukattai-sundal-ganesh-chathurthi.html

 

 

Paal kozhukattai - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/2013/08/paal-kozhukattai-ganesh-chathurthi.html

 

 

Kadalai parupu sundal - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/2013/07/kadalai-parupu-sundal.html

 

Ellu urundai - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.com/2013/09/ellu-urundai.html

 

 

Thayir pachadi - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/2013/04/cucumber-raitha-cucumber-pachadi.html

 

Medu Vadai - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/2012/11/medu-vadai.html

 

 

Parupu Payasam - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.in/2012/08/paruppu-payasam.html

 

 

Maha neivedhiyam, and recently I added

 

Oats kozhukattai 

 

Cornmeal kozhukattai - http://nivedhanams.blogspot.com/2013/09/cornmeal-kozhukattai.html ..

 

We buy a Lord Ganesha statue made with clay, decorate it, put erukam poo garland, do prayers with many flowers with the main one being arugam pul. After the festival, the statue is ready for Visarjan in 1,3,5,7 or 11 days.
Lord Ganesha is elephant headed and there is a very nice epic behind the same.. It is believed that Goddess Parvati created a statue with sandalwood and gave life to the statue and made it to a child. She made the child as a guard while she went to take bath. Lord Shiva (husband of Goddess Parvati) came at that time and the child did not know him and did not allow him to enter. Lord Shiva got angry and sent his boodhaganam (army men I guess!!) to defeat the child. But the child who was created by the goddess herself was very powerful enough to defeat the army with very little effort.. Then the devas and Lord Indra himself attacked the child but they too did not stand a chance. Then finally Lord Shiva beheaded the child. This enraged Parvati and she revealed her true self as Adi Shakti (supreme power) and she vowed to destroy the entire universe where her son was killed and will create another one.. The gods prostrated before her and Lord shiva promised to give life to the child. There was a hunt for the head and an elephant’s head was attached to the child and he got his life back. Lord Shiva named the child Ganesha (Gana Isha – lord of the Ganas). Lord Shiva also declared that all auspicious occasions and prayers will begin with the worship of Lord Ganesha..

This is for G – Miscellaneous
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