This is continued from part one of this article series. Please read that before you read this article. At night, children and youngsters burn fireworks and firecrackers. The elders give gifts and blessings to children. The next day of Diwali is celebrated as the new year for Hindus. On this day everyone wears new clothes. Relatives visit each other and exchange gifts. The last day of Diwali is celebrated as Bhaiduj – this day is special for brothers and sisters as they express their love for each other. Sisters make special fooditems for brothers and brothers give gifts to her. This is the way the festival of Diwali is celebrated. In 2009, even president Barack Obama conducted Diwali celebrations in the White House.

Ganesh Chaturthi – Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the most popular festivals of India celebrated with much pomp and fanfare especially in the state of Maharashtra. It is much celebrated with great enthusiasm by people of all religions. This is the festival of Lord Ganesha – the elephant God. He is the son of Lord Shiva. The day is also called Vinayaka Chaturthi. It comes in between August or September. Freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak began the celebration of this festival as a means to get people together during British rule in India in the 19th century.

Ganpati festival is celebrated for ten days. It starts with Chaturthi which is the birthday of lord Ganesha. Clay statues of lord Ganesha are prepared by sculptors round the year for this fest. There are public pandals/shows where big Ganpati idols are brought and people also bring small idols to their homes. People clean their home and decorate it to welcome the Ganesha idol. They worship the idol twice daily in the morning and evening for ten days. They offer flowers and sweets as offerings to the Ganesha idol. Sweets like modak and laddu are made because Lord Ganesha loved the sweets especially modak. Relatives and neighbors are invited to take the blessings of the God.

In public celebrations, groups of people get together and collect funds from their locality and make a huge pandal and decorate it with flowers and lights, etc on the streets and install the idol of Ganesha. They organize various events and competitions like singing and dancing for members of the locality. At the end of ten days, the immersion day comes. On the 11th day the idols of lord Ganesha are immersed in the rivers and seas. This day is called Anant Chaturdashi or Ganesh Visarjan. On this day, everyone take their Ganesha idols with lots of dancing and singing through out the way and shout “Ganpati Bappa Morya, pudchya varshi lavkar ya” which means “Hail Lord Ganesha, come back early next year.”

Navratri- Navratri means nine nights. It is a major festival of the Hindu religion. This festival is the celebration and worship of Goddess Maa Durga. It generally comes in the months of September or October. Each day of Navratri is dedicated to Maa Durga in a different form. During Navratri, people worship Goddess Maa Durga and dance at night for nine consecutive nights. This dance of Navratri is called as Garba. Please read further in part three of this article series.

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Category: Culture
Keywords: festivals, india, indian festivals, navratri, ganesh chaturthi, culture