Ganesh Chaturthi Festival The birthday of Ganesha, and since Tilak made it a public festival in 1893 the great street festival of Maharashtra.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Ganesh Chaturthi
- हिन्दी
- गणेश चतुर्थी
- मराठी
- गणेश चतुर्थी
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The birthday of Ganesha, and since Tilak made it a public festival in 1893 the great street festival of Maharashtra. A clay idol is installed at home or in a pandal with the pranapratishtha, worshipped for a day, or for five, seven or ten, and carried to the water at the end with the cry that asks him to come again next year.
- Deity
- Ganesha, Gauri
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Madhyahna, midday, is the hour of the birth, so the sthapana and the first puja are at midday; the calendar takes the day on which Shukla Chaturthi runs at madhyahna.
The fast
A fast until the midday puja for those who keep it. Modak, twenty-one of them, and durva grass are the offering. The moon is not looked at that night.
Where the regions differ
Maharashtra and the Telugu country keep it publicly; Karnataka keeps Gauri Habba the day before; Tamil Nadu and Kerala keep it at home. Traditions vary on the day of immersion, from the same evening to the eleventh day.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.