Great start of Ganeshotsav, celebration begins with drums, cards, dance and chants of ‘Ganpati Bappa Morya’
Mumbai (IANS). After almost three years, Ganeshotsav Utsav-2023 began with colorful grandeur. Thousands of idols of Lord Ganesha are being installed in homes, housing complexes and public places in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra.
Ganesh Chaturthi is being celebrated with drums, dance and chanting of ‘Ganpati Bappa Morya’. On this occasion lakhs of devotees gathered to worship and enjoy their favorite ‘Modak’.
This year Lord Ganesha has been presented on the topical themes of decoration. Which includes everything from education to science and history.
The decorations highlighting the recent Chandrayaan-3 landing on the Moon are drawing crowds at the ‘Khetwadicha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal’ in South Mumbai.
The ever-popular ‘Lalbaugcha Raja’ is seen seated majestically on a throne, marking the 350th anniversary of the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, which is the last creation of late art director Nitin C Desai.
This year, idols ranging from 36 feet tall to 2 feet small in a variety of colors, designs and decorations are popular at home festivals.
Organizers said the country’s most expensive Ganeshotsav marquee is at GSB Seva Mandal, where the idol of Lord Ganesha is adorned with 60 kg of gold and 336 kg of silver jewellery. There are also two special thanksgiving ‘havan’ for Chandrayaan-3 landing and fulfillment of Lord Ram temple, and a special composite insurance cover of Rs 350 crore.
Apart from these header marquees, other major crowd-pullers are Tezukaya Mandal, GSB Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samiti Wadala, Shri Balagopal Ganeshotsav Mandal Marine Lines, Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal Fort, Andhericha Raja in Andheri, Khetwadi 11 and 12 Lanes and Sahyadri Mandal in Chembur .
This year, BMC has given permission to around 2,729 organizations for public Ganeshotsav celebrations. Mumbai has been transformed into a huge open festival site over the next 10 days with over 12,000 large Lord Ganesha idols and over 3,00,000 medium and small idols installed on almost every street, nook and intersection of the city.
In honor of Lord Ganesha, homes and areas have started resonating with the chants of ‘Ganpati Bappa Morya’. Apart from this, various socio-cultural activities along with ‘Aarti’, and ‘Prasad’ have also started daily in the morning, afternoon and evening.
The formal festivities began on Tuesday morning with ‘Sthapana Puja’ followed by traditional aarti to mark the birthday of Lord Ganesha, son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.
