9799692b348 Nivedhanam: Ganesh Chathurthi Celebrations and Recipes

Monday, September 9, 2013

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.
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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

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Our nivedhanam menu for this festival includes -
 

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Ellu poorna Kozhukattai – Recipe coming Soon,
 
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Kadalai Parupu Sundal - IMG_4894[10]
 
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Cucumber Pachadi - IMG_1364[8]
 
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Maha neivedhiyam, and recently I added
 
Oats kozhukattai 
 
 
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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..
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This is for G – Miscellaneous
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24 comments :

  1. This is almost like what we do in Maharashtra. What an elaborate spread. Love your post. "Ganapati Bappa Morrya"

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  2. Happy Ganesh Chathurthi to you Sowmya, beautiful post!

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  3. Wonderful post ! Happy Ganesha Chaturthi !!

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  4. Wonderful post Sowmya. Loved it. Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to you and your family too.

    today's post:
    http://sanolisrecipies.blogspot.in/2013/09/butter-sponge-cake.html

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  5. Am missing all these celebrations here, today all are back to work & school, i did the pooja alone at home. After going through ur post, felt like saying that i celebrated ganesh chathurthi with you and your family.

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  6. wow beautiful decorations and delicious collections dear :) lovely post !!

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  7. Happy Ganesh Chaturthi...will come back to read this elaborate post..:))... Loving all the celebration food.

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  8. wow u did all this in one shot hats off to u so good loving the recipes so yumm.

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  9. Happy Ganesh Chaturthi, Sowmya :) Lovely mandir-bhog prepared... I'm sure Ganeshji enjoyed all these delicacies from your magical hands...

    Read the latest post @ cooking with SJ - http://cookingwithsj.com/2013/09/09/bourani-kachaloo/

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  10. Wonderful post dear and a lovely spread, happy Ganesha chathurthi...

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  11. Absolutely spot on!We Hindus are united by the Golden thread of our Sanatana Dharma!
    All our Dharmic rituals are only for disciplining ourselves on the quest for the SELF.The ritual of fasting & also preparing so many 'neivedyams' on such festivals is to control our palate (prevention of obesity).Slowly but steadily with Bhakti & Vishvaasam realization dawns that finally it is the Atman that matters.
    Our Hindu Dharma considers every material body as the temple & the Atman within as the deity.
    Wishing everyone A VERY SHUBHA GANESH CHATURTHI!
    SARVAU SUKHINO BHAVANTU!!!!!

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  12. Very informational and a keeper. I am sure the kids of this generation would learn a thing or two from this post.

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  13. so informative and what a beautiful spread!

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  14. Beautiful post & informative post..

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  15. Very interesting post Sowmya. Loving the pictures of celebration...

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  16. Lovely post Sowmya. Loved all the offerings to Lord Ganesha.

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  17. Nice write up and beautiful clicks Sowmya...

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  18. Lovely post Sowmya and what a wonderful spread :)

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  19. Lovely festive spread Soumya...looks awesome!!

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  20. Wow..that's a lovely spread there Sowmya!

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  21. Lovely spread Sowmya. LOve your post on Ganesh. Hope u had a great time.

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Dear Friends,
Thank you for reading my blog post. Your comments and feedback is very valuable and I appreciate it very much. Please leave your valuable comments and feedback for this post. Thanks Sowmya

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