Ganesh Chaturthi is a vibrant and widely celebrated Hindu festival that honors Lord Ganesha, the God of wisdom, prosperity, and good fortune. The festival usually falls between August and September, depending on the lunar calendar. Ganesh Chaturthi celebrates Lord Ganesha’s birthday and is also a time for people to come together, promote community spirit, and seek blessings for prosperity and success in their lives. The festival varies widely in its scale and style across different regions and communities, but the central themes of devotion, celebration, and community spirit are common to all celebrations.
The one and a half-day Ganesh Chaturthi celebration came to an end on Sunday when the devotees performed the ceremonial rituals to bid adieu to Lord Ganesh, whose idols they had placed in their homes.
Following a full day of worshiping Lord Ganesh, devotees carried the idols in processions, singing bhajans and chanting "Ganapatibappa Morya" as they made their way to different locations for the ceremonial visarjan.
Devotees have been moving toward various immersion locations since Sunday night. They conducted the immersion procedure and performed aartis at the location of the immersion. While in rural areas, villagers celebrating Ganesh for a day and a half got together and performed visarjan at the immersion sites after adhering to certain customary rituals, necessary preparations were made in Mapusa, where lifeguards were stationed to carry out the solemn process of immersion.
To prevent the devotees from throwing their offerings into the water, provisions of proper lighting at the visarjan points and installation of nirmalya kalash were made. This enabled the faithful to place their offerings into the kalash, thus ensuring appropriate disposal of offered flowers and other materials. The collected offerings are to undergo additional processing and conversion into manure.