what is vinayagar chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi or Vinayaka Chavithi, is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of the elephant-headed God Ganesha. It is observed annually on the fourth day of the first fortnight of Bhadrapada month, which falls between August and September in the Hindu calendar. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganeshas clay idols privately in homes and publicly on elaborate pandals (temporary stages) . Celebrations include chanting of Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, such as prayers and vrata (fasting) . Ganesha is offered coconut, jaggery, and 21 modaks (sweet dumplings), considered to be Ganesha’s favourite food. At the conclusion of the festival, the idols are carried to local rivers in huge processions accompanied by drumbeats, devotional singing, and dancing. There they are immersed, a ritual symbolizing Ganesha’s homeward journey to Mount Kailas—the abode of his parents, Shiva and Parvati. The festival became a major public event in the 1600s when Indian king, Shivaji Bhosale I, first sponsored the celebration, and it was revitalized later in the 19th century as a symbol of India’s independence movement, by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak.