Ganesh Chaturthi: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Ganesh Chaturthi celebrates Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, who is worshipped first at the start of every puja and every new venture as the remover of obstacles. It falls on the fourth tithi (Chaturthi) of the bright half of Bhadrapada, in late summer.

Families bring a clay image of Ganesha home, or set one up in a community pandal, and welcome him as an honoured guest for one and a half, three, five or seven days, or until Anant Chaturdashi. Each day he is offered prayers, durva grass, red flowers and his favourite sweet, the modak. On the last day he is given a loving farewell and the image is immersed in water (visarjan), with the call to return next year. The longest stay ends on Anant Chaturdashi, ten days after Chaturthi.

Maharashtra and Goa celebrate it as their greatest festival. Telugu families call it Vinayaka Chavithi, Tamil families Vinayagar Chathurthi, and in Karnataka it follows Gowri Habba, the worship of his mother Gauri on the Tritiya, usually the day before and in some years the same day.

Why it is kept

Ganesha's birth (the Puranas). The Puranas tell that Parvati shaped a boy from the paste she used at her bath, gave him life and set him at her door. The Shiva Purana goes on: when Shiva came home, the boy would not let him in. A struggle followed, and the boy lost his head. Parvati wept for her son, so Shiva had the first head that could be found brought to him. It was an elephant's, and the boy was given life again. Other Puranas add that he was made chief of the ganas, Shiva's followers, and so he is called Ganapati and Ganesha, and that he is to be worshipped first of all the gods.

Other tellings. The Brahma Vaivarta Purana tells the story differently: there the child's head is lost when the planet-god Shani looks at him. The Mudgala and Ganesha Puranas, dear to the Ganapatya tradition, praise Ganesha as the supreme God. Families may know one telling or several.

The scribe of the Mahabharata. The opening section of the Mahabharata, in the version that K. M. Ganguli translated, tells that the sage Vyasa asked Ganesha to write down the epic as he recited it. Ganesha agreed on one condition, that his pen should never stop, and Vyasa answered that Ganesha must understand every verse before writing it. Many families honour Ganesha as the patron of learning and writing for this reason.

The moon on this night. A popular story says that the Moon laughed at Ganesha, and that Ganesha then asked that no one should look at the Moon on this Chaturthi. Many families avoid looking at the Moon on this night and read the story of the Syamantaka jewel, in which Krishna is wrongly suspected of taking a jewel and then clears his name (Vishnu Purana, book 4, chapter 13). Other families do not keep this custom.

Two brothers' race (popular telling). Shiva and Parvati once offered a fruit to whichever of their sons first went around the world. Kartikeya set off on his peacock; Ganesha walked around his parents and said that they were his world. Families tell this story to children to honour wisdom and love for parents.

The texts behind the story

• Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic, by W. J. Wilkins (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink; London: W. Thacker, 1882) ('Ganesa', pp. 267–272 (leaves n286–n291): the Brahma Vaivarta telling, Shani's look, p. 269 (leaf n288); the Matsya's account of the boy made from the oil, ointments and impurities of Parvati's bath, pp. 270–271 (leaves n289–n290); the Shiva Purana telling, the door, the struggle and the elephant's head, p. 271 (leaf n290); the Varaha's chief of the ganas, worshipped first, pp. 271–272 (leaves n290–n291))
• The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated into English prose (K. M. Ganguli), published by Protap Chandra Roy: Adi Parva (Calcutta: Bharata Press, 1884) (Section I, p. 6 (leaf n39): Ganesa's condition that his pen not stop, and Vyasa's answer)
• The scribe passage is not in the constituted text of the Pune critical edition: V. S. Sukthankar, Prolegomena to the Adiparvan (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1933), p. LIII (the Ganesa episode is Appendix I, No. 1, missing in the Southern and Kashmiri manuscripts). Sukthankar died 1943: cited, not quoted. M. Winternitz, "Ganesa in the Mahabharata", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, April 1898, pp. 380–384, had already noted it missing from a Grantha manuscript and from Kshemendra's Bharatamanjari. (p. LIII (leaf n57))
• Vishnu Purana, book 4, chapter 13 (the Syamantaka jewel). H. H. Wilson (tr.), The Vishnu Purana (London: John Murray, 1840). Public domain. Summarised in our own words. (book 4, chapter 13, pp. 424–434 (leaves n522–n532); Krishna cleared of the false charge, p. 428 (leaf n526))
• Ganesa Caturthi in the digests: midday as the time of worship; the moon not looked at, with the Syamantaka story heard as the custom's answer; the image kept for one and a half to seven days or until Anantacaturdasi, then immersed. Read in P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, vol. 5, part 1 (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1958). Kane died 1972: cited, not quoted. (vol. 5, part 1, pp. 145–149)

When it is kept

Ganesh Chaturthi is the Shukla Chaturthi of Bhadrapada that is present during madhyahna, the middle of the five equal parts of the daytime at your location, the time tradition gives for Ganesha's birth and for the main puja. If Chaturthi covers madhyahna on both days, or on neither, the earlier day is taken. This is the rule of Smarta panchangs, as recorded in the classical festival rules (Kielhorn, followed by Dershowitz and Reingold). The app shows the midday window for the puja.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Ganesh Chaturthi 2027: Puja falls on Friday, September 3, 2027 in Washington DC (computed for this city). In New Delhi it falls on Saturday, September 4, 2027.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• Smarta: Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi in madhyahna
• Marathi and Konkani: Ganeshotsav of 1.5 days up to Anant Chaturdashi, ten days after Chaturthi
• Telugu: Vinayaka Chavithi, with the vrata katha and the worship with 21 kinds of leaves
• Kannada: Gowri Habba on the Tritiya, usually the day before
• Tamil: Vinayagar Chathurthi

Why the day can differ

Madhyahna is the middle of your own day, so when Chaturthi begins or ends near midday, cities can keep different dates, and a city abroad can differ from India by a day. Tamil calendars name the festival by their solar month, but it follows the same lunar tithi.

Families also differ in how long Ganesha stays: one and a half, three, five or seven days, or until Anant Chaturdashi, and the last day of each is counted from the date of Chaturthi. Abroad, community celebrations and immersions are often held on a weekend, and local rules decide where an image may be immersed; many families immerse a small clay image in a bucket or tub at home and pour the water into the garden.

How to keep it at home

1. Choose a clay image (shadu mati) or another image that dissolves in water. Clean the place where it will sit, and decorate it with flowers, leaves and lights.
2. Bring Ganesha home with joy, often chanting "Ganpati Bappa Morya". At the midday window shown in the app, place the image on a low table with a red or yellow cloth and invite his presence (pran pratishtha) with a prayer, or ask your family priest to do it.
3. Offer water, kumkum and turmeric, unbroken rice, red flowers such as hibiscus, a garland, and twenty-one blades of durva grass. Offer modaks, often twenty-one, with laddoos, fruit and a coconut. Telugu families also offer twenty-one kinds of leaves (patri) and read the Vinayaka vrata katha.
4. Prayers commonly said: the shloka "Vakratunda mahakaya", the Ganapati Atharvashirsha, the Sankatanashana Ganesha Stotram, the 108 names of Ganesha, and the aartis "Sukhakarta Dukhaharta" in Marathi and "Jai Ganesh Deva" in Hindi.
5. Do the aarti morning and evening for as long as Ganesha stays, and welcome friends and neighbours for darshan and prasad.
6. On the last day, do a farewell aarti, offer curd rice or a sweet for the journey, and carry the image for immersion, calling "Ganpati Bappa Morya, come back soon next year". Immerse it in a tub, a tank or a place local rules allow; a clay image dissolves within hours, and the water and clay can go to the garden.

Fasting

Ganesh Chaturthi is mainly a feast. Some devotees fast until the midday puja, or eat only fruit and milk on the day, and many keep the monthly Sankashti Chaturthi fast in the dark half of the month. Anyone who is pregnant, unwell, diabetic, elderly or on regular medicine should keep a light fast, or none, and talk to a doctor first.

Food

The modak comes first: steamed rice-flour dumplings filled with coconut and jaggery (ukadiche modak), or fried ones. Tamil homes make kozhukattai, Telugu homes undrallu and Kannada homes kadubu, all cousins of the modak. Families also make laddoos, puran poli, karanji, panchakhadya (a mix of five dry fruits and sugar) and sundal.

For children

Once Shiva and Parvati said to their two sons: "Whoever goes around the whole world first will get this sweet fruit." Kartikeya jumped on his peacock and flew off at once. Ganesha thought for a moment. Then he walked slowly around his mother and father and said, "You are my whole world." His parents smiled and gave him the fruit. Families tell this story to remember that wisdom and love can win the race.

Something to do together

Shape a small Ganesha together from clay or dough: a round body, a round head, big ears and a curling trunk. Give him a tiny modak to hold, and keep him on your puja shelf for the festival.

Sources

• Panchang engine rule ganesh-chaturthi (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with the sources it lists.
• N. Dershowitz and E. M. Reingold, "Indian Calendrical Calculations" (festival rules, citing F. Kielhorn, 1897), the source of the madhyahna rule for Ganesha Chaturthi.
• K. M. Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata, Adi Parva (Calcutta, 1884), Section I, p. 6. Ganguli died 1908: public domain.
• H. H. Wilson (tr.), The Vishnu Purana (London, 1840), book 4, chapter 13. Public domain.

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