Ganpati Bappa Moraya: Part Two

Day One: Bringing Ganpati Bappa Home (19.09.2023)

Angarika Chaturthi is a Sankashti Chaturthi falling on the fourth day of the Krishna Paksha (the waning fortnight of the Moon) and a Tuesday, is considered highly auspicious among all Sankashti Chaturthi days. This is an Angarika Chaturthi year. I thought we had to get up early in the morning and start with the preparations for the day, but everything was so chill! Done with the tea, we did not have breakfast today, I helped my mother in making Modak's. We had to go to the factory to bring Ganpati Bappa at 9am. In the village there is an ancestral concept of a common devghar (puja room) and a common Ganpati sthapana in the first ancestral house, later even if the family members move out and built their own nuclear family houses, they still have to worship the devghar first. Hence, we first had to bring the devghar Ganpati Bappa idol to the room adjacent to the devghar, will show the picture in next post. Bigger idols were picked faster and there was a queue to pick the smaller ones. There was a lot of hustle and bustle in the factory, and everyone was too much enthusiastic and impatient to take their Ganpati Bappa home. Some carried the idol in vehicles, some on their heads, some in their hands, some on the trolley, etc. Firecrackers were lit for welcoming Ganesha. There was an idol traffic in the village lanes. There were a few extra idols created, if all of a sudden someone wishes to celebrate the festival in their home, they can buy the idol of the spot. Celebration continues from one and a half day (rightly two days, by the time the visarjan is done, the day is complete!), four days, five days, seven days, Gauri-Ganpati (depends on when gauri visarjan is, mother gauri takes her son along, mostly fifth or seventh day), ten/eleven days. It all depends on how many days you wish to serve Ganesha at your home, while Ganesha showers his blessings equally on all. We have it for five days. Finally, we brought our Ganpati Bappa home at 10am.

The Pran Pratishtha ritual is done to sanctify Ganpati Bappa's idol, during which devotees perform deep-prajwalan, take sankalpa, and recite mantras. Then the idol is placed in the home. My father did this and we placed Ganpati Bappa on the decorated table. 

The Shodashopachara rituals is done with a smaller palm sized idol which we have in home, first wash Ganesha's feet, give the idol a bath with panchamruta (milk, ghee, honey, curd, sugar), offer fresh flowers, akshata (rice grains), sindoor and apply fresh chandan tilak to the Ganpati idol. Then the bigger idol is worshipped with marigold flower garlands, shoe flower with 21 durvas, akshata, sindoor and chandan tilak. We decorated the idol with beegbali (in the ear), golden pearl bracelets in the hands, kanthi (pearl necklace), kept an artificial shoe flower in right hand and a golden modak in left hand. 

Done with the initial ritual, we performed the dhup-aarati (with camphor balls) with family members and offered naivedhya (platter of 21 Modak's and food on banana leaf) at 1pm. 

Post that I thought now we will relish the lunch, but here is the twist. Earlier there were about five to seven idols, so the ritual was to perform the aarati at every idol's home in a given sequence. Now that the number of idols is 25+, the ritual becomes a bit difficult and time consuming. So, the villagers have divided themselves into groups of four to five close-knit relatives and also divided the homes respectively. Hence, we had to wait for this common aarati and then have lunch. My cousins and brother joined one of the groups. Finally, the group arrived at our home. One thing I noticed that the group consists only of males, the male family members of the house participate in the aarati while the females are inside the house in some other room. The group must be given prasad (ganesha's blessings) every time they visit our home. Since we have bappa for 5 days, the group will visit each day at noon and late evening, from day one till the noon on the visarjan day. The aarati sang by the group were different each time and were unique, no repetitions, in a symphony. It was pleasant to listen to it. Finally, the aarati was done and we had a sumptuous lunch served on banana leaf. 

From today onwards till visarjan, the food would be served on the banana leaf only, to ganpati bappa and us as well. Hence the trek uphill yesterday.

Read next: Ganpati Bappa Moraya: Part Three