Ganesha Chaturthi

Yesterday the aadheenam celebrated Ganesha Chaturthi with a puja and abhishekam in Kadavul temple. After the puja, monks and devotees paraded to the river to submerge the handcrafted clay Ganeshas in its sacred waters, symbolizing Ganesha's release into universal consciousness.

Ganesha Chaturthi, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi, is the festival day celebrating the birth of Lord Ganesha. One of the great national festivals of India, and the foremost annual festival to Ganesha, it is celebrated on the chaturthi or "fourth day" after the new moon in the Tamil month of Avani (August-September). The temple and home shrine are decorated with banana leaves, sugarcane and strings of mango leaves. We bring baskets of fruits and sweets, especially modaka balls, and place them before the sanctum of Lord Ganesha. He receives special pujas throughout the day and often a festival parade. Each year we obtain or make a small or large soft clay image of Ganapati and use it for worship at home for two to ten days.

Aum śuklāmbaradharaṁ vishṇum
Śaśivarṇaṁ chaturbhujam
Prasanna vadanaṁ dhyāyet
Sarva vighnopaśāntaye

Aum, attired in white and all-pervading,
O moon-hued, four-shouldered One
with smiling face so pleasing,
upon You we meditate
for removing all obstacles.

Lord Ganesha is bedecked with garlands and flowers

devotees begin to arrive for the puja, bringing with them many flowers and offerings of food and sweets

The abhishekam begins with water and then milk

Clay Ganeshas are brought to be blessed before the visarjana

homemade yogurt

vibhuthi

The curtains close and Ganesha is decorated

following the arati, the clay Ganeshas are set on a palanquin to be brought to the river

first a stop at the side shrine

down to the river

Wailua Ganga

The clay murtis are floated out to the center of the water

The Ganeshas are then released into the sacred river

Jai Ganesha!

Aum Gam Ganapataye Namah

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