Ganesh Chaturthi 2023: Why and how did the tradition of celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi start in Maharashtra?

Ganesh Chaturthi 2023: Ganesh Chaturthi is a very important festival for the entire Hindu religion. Which is celebrated with great enthusiasm in every corner of the country. It is celebrated in Bhadrapada of the Hindu calendar. People bring the idol of Lord Ganesha to their homes, worship him in grand style, and then immerse them after ten days.

But have you ever noticed that Ganesh Chaturthi is more popular in cities like Maharashtra, Goa, and Telangana? Big pandals of Lord Ganesha are set up here. The idol of Lord Ganesha is brought to every house with a grand welcome. The entire Mumbai city remains busy in the excitement of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Why is there dust only in these cities?
Let us know why Maharashtra's Ganesh Chaturthi is so famous.

The festival of Ganesh Chaturthi has been celebrated as a social festival in Mumbai and Pune. It is also called Ganesh Utsav because on this day the birth of Lord Ganesha is celebrated like a festival and Ganesha is called Ganpati Bappa.

This is a festival lasting 11 days, in which everyone brings the idol of Lord Ganesha to their homes and immerses it after worship.

Apart from being celebrated across the country, the glamor of this festival is different in Mumbai and Pune. Big pandals, grand aarti, and grand adornment of Lord Ganesha become a part of it.

In the Peshwa era, during the time of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the founder of the Maratha Empire, Ganpati Bappa was worshiped in every village and every house of Maharashtra because Ganesh ji was the family deity of the Peshwa.

With time, as their empire declined, the Ganpati festival also declined.

But then Lokmanya Tilak, who fought for freedom, tried to restart this festival.

The present-day Ganesh Utsav began in 1892 when Krishnaji Pant, a resident of Pune, visited Maratha-ruled Gwalior. There he witnessed the traditional Ganesh festival and on his return to Pune, mentioned this to his friends Balasaheb Natu and Bhau Saheb Laxman Jawale, also known as Bhau Rangari.

Bhau Saheb Javale then installed the first Ganesh idol.

Lokmanya Tilak praised Javale's efforts in his newspaper Kesari in 1893 and installed a large statue of Lord Ganesha in his office.

It was due to their efforts that this traditional festival became a grandly decorated social festival.

Tilak was the first to display the social picture and idol of Lord Ganesha in public and created a tradition of immersing it in rivers on the tenth day. After this big Ganesh festivals started taking place on grand grounds and pandals involving people of every caste and religion, which brought unity among all the Indians because there was a ban by the British on gatherings like this at one place. These restrictions do not work in front of Ganesh Utsav.
Tilak called Lord Ganesha as 'Lord of all' and declared Ganesh Chaturthi as an Indian festival.
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