Monday, September 17, 2007

Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations

|| Om Ganeshaya Namah ||


|| वक्रतुंडा महाकाय कोटी सुर्य समप्रभः ||

|| निर्विग्नम कुरुमे देव सर्व कर्येशु सर्वदः ||

G
anesh Chaturthi is celebrated on the birthday of Lord Ganesh (Ganapati), the god of wisdom and prosperity on the fourth day of the moons bright fortnight, or period from new moon in the lunar month of Bhadrapada. The celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi continue for one, five, seven, or ten days. In the tradition of the right hand path the first day is the most important. In the left hand path tradition the final day is most important.

Ganesha is the god of wisdom and prosperity and is invoked before the beginning of any auspicious work by the Hindus. It is believed that for the fulfillment of one's desires, his blessing is absolutely necessary. According to the mythology, he is the son of Shiva and Parvati, brother of Kartikeya - the general of the gods, Lakshmi - the goddess of wealth and Saraswati-the goddess of learning. There are numerous stories in Hindu mythology, associated with the birth of this elephant-headed god, whose vehicle is the Mooshak vahana or rat and who loves Modaks (droplet shaped Indian sweet). If you are interested in knowing further story on this dig in here and here


Vinayaka Chavithi Pooja @ my home

Ganesh Chaturthi Celebrations

The festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and many other parts of India. On this day we sanctify the house and pooja room for Ganesh Puja, prepare naivedyam/ prasadam/food offerings to God Ganesha. I am sharing some of my Ganesh Chaturthi celebration pictures with you all.

Pasupu(Haldi/turmeric) Ganapati and Silver Ganapati Idol

I made 9 varieties of naivedyam this time: Undarallu, Kudumullu, Paalundrallu, Pulihora, Modaks, Payasam, Vada, Chakkari Pongal and Gugullam, all are favorites of Ganapati. I will post the recipes for the below items later in this week.


Peda and Modak/Modakallu, JB helped me in preparing them,
well most of the part he only did, the stirring part!


Kudumullu-Steamed rice flour dumplings with jaggery, coconut stuffing.
A very favorite dish for Sri Ganesh



Uppu Undarallu-salted rice flour dumplings with chana dal, jeera (cumin seeds)


Paalundrallu- rice flour dumplings in coconut, milk and sesame seeds sauce


Semya Payasam-vermicelli milk pudding


Chakkari Pongal/ Paramannam-long grain rice pudding


Pulihora- Tamarind-Sesame flavored rice


Chenagapappu Vadalu-bengal gram patties


Guggullam-sauted chick peas

Afterwards we made puja, JB(my dh) read the story and we chanted Ganesh Ashtotaram (108 names of Ganesha) and slokhas, performed Aarthi in the end. We kept both our books for puja which you can see below.

In the evening we again performed aarthi and did visarjan/nirmarjana/immersion of Lord Ganesha's Idol. I love this festival and celebrate it very much and every yearI eagerly wait for this. Back at my mother's place in Mumbai we had a blast during those 11 days for the festival. Oh Man! I so much miss this event.

During evening arathi

You can find more on Bombay Ganesh festival from here, here, here and on mid-day. A photo of an artist giving touch-ups to the idol. With the immersion of the idol amidst the chanting of "Ganesh Maharaj Ki Jai!" (Hail Lord Ganesh). The festival ends with pleas to Ganesha to return the next year with chants of "Ganpati bappa morya, pudcha varshi laukar ya" (Hail Lord Ganesh, return again soon next year.

Info courtesy: Tajonline

32 comments:

Sharmi said...

waaw Am I the first! lovely post Padma!! pics look very nice.

Tee said...

lovely post, Padma! The neivedyam looks so good!

ramya said...

lovely post and neivedyam and decorations r perfect.happy ganesh chaturthi

Sreelu said...

Padma, chala bagundi andi, pala undalu chesi/choosi chala rjulu ayyindi.chala chakkaga decorate chesaru. Hope Java adi baga nerchukuntaru ee year:)lol

Apple said...

Lovely pics Padma...undrallu chaala bavunnayi

Srivalli said...

padma...simply rocking...everything looks so wonderful...hope jb & you had a great time and enjoyed...

Srivalli said...

and those oracle & javabeans books looks so meek in presence of lord that I can also learn it..:D

Cinnamon said...

Wow Padma... wat a wonderful spread of Naivedyam....
And a very nice decoration too...
Love;y pics..

Vcuisine said...

Lovely and divine post Padma. Neat presenttion. Viji

Asha said...

OMG!! Padma, Ganesha looks great and the food is better.What an array of delicious food girl.Pulihora is mouthwatering, hope you post the recipe!:))

Cynthia said...

What a glorious feast! I hope you and the family had a blessed day.

Siri Kilambi said...

Padma.....Everything sounds good......I am not able to view the pics on my system...donno if therz any problem....will check ur space later for the photos :-)
But,seems like u had a nice Ganesha Chaturdhi :-)

EC said...

wow, so many items....all of them mouthwatering...amazing patience to make all these

Mishmash ! said...

Beautiful....religious....spiritual..thats all the impression i get going through your post...A real good one!!

Shn

Jyothi said...

Hi Padma! what a lovely spread of neivedyam. So many types of prasadam. Really so much patience to do that many. Great post. All the photos are just beautiful. Thanks for sharing dear.

Richa said...

what a gorgeous feast :)
looks absolutely amazing!
looks like you had a wonderful day of festivities, right?

Bong Mom said...

Wow padma, very nice variety of prasadams. Ganesha Ji must have been very happy :)

Happy Cook said...

It all looks so wonderful. From reading your post it seems you had such a wonderful time

Redchillies said...

Padma, looks awesome. What a beautiful spread, lovely decoartion and lvoely presenation.

Lissie said...

padma, hope you enjoyed the festival very much! i love kozhukkatta and chakkara pongal. nice pictures!

marriedtoadesi.com said...

Nice spread....your puja looks beautiful.

Kanchana

swapna susarla said...

woooow padma
ur ganesha looks so beautifuL!!!hope u enjoyed very well.

Nags said...

lovely pictures padma :) very nice and auspicious..

about the event, i totally understand that you cant choose one book. so you can send in a collection of say 2-3 books that you pick and one line describing why you like them :) hope that works. Yes you have time till 30th sept :)

http://cookingandme.blogspot.com/2007/09/announcing-show-me-your-cook-books.html

Sia said...

what a feast padma.. i dont think i need to ask u how well u celebrated chaturthi :)

Chef Jeena said...

Padma I can't wait for your recipes for these lovely photos WOW! Such a fantastic food spread I bet it was so delicious. :D

Suma Gandlur said...

Lovely platter. That's gorgeous Ganesha Idol.

Latha Narasimhan said...

WoW! What a great spread for the Lord! Hope you have sent this for our ganesha event! If not please do send padma dear! Such tempting pictures! Loved your silver tumbler!:))

Kribha said...

Gosh...beautiful pictures. Both the decor and neivedhyam looks good. Really, you have a lot of patience in doing this and posting it for all of us to see. Good work.

Anonymous said...

Padma,

Very nice photos and food looks great.

Cheers,
Radhika

Kalva said...

wow awesome padma, hope Ganeshji had a feast all his favorites welldone. Pictures are truly awesome! Thanks for visiting my site and leaving ur wonderful comments!

Abhijit Dharmadhikari said...

Excellent blog....well maintained...lovely recipes!

I will be a regular visitor here:-)

srikiran said...

srikiran said.. its look very nice and i hope its very tasty
as u living in u.s.a but u didnt forget our traditions hands off .its very nice to c u happy vinayaka chathurthi .

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