Amid chants of 'Ganpati Bappa Morya, Mangal Murti Morya', the 10-day-long Ganeshutsav commenced in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra on Friday amid tight restrictions in the wake of an impending third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2020, the Ganesh festival was celebrated when the first wave of the global pandemic was on - and immediately after the festival there was a surge of cases in Maharashtra.
With the recent slight increase in cases, the government does not want to take any chances, adhering to Centre's advice to keep vigil during the festive season.
The temples in the state remain shut for the public while during the Ganesh festival, only online darshans would be allowed in pandals.
The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesh clay idols in homes, popularised by Lokmanya Tilak in 1893 in public places of Pune - to garner support for India’s freedom movement and address social issues.
In Mumbai, the origin of the festival in this form is from Keshavji Nayak Chawl at Girgaum.
The golden triangle involving the Mumbai metropolitan region, Pune and Nashik are where there are huge celebrations and over the last couple of days, there has been heavy crowds on the roads for pre-festival shopping.
Back-to-back for two years, the Maharashtra government has restricted the height of idols to 2 feet for households and 4 feet for public mandals.
On Friday morning, on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, the ‘sthaapna’ pooja was performed followed by traditional aartis to mark the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.
Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed-pot-bellied God of wisdom, brings in prosperity and good fortune. Ganapati stands as a symbol of knowledge, as the lord of the lords as ‘Ganadhipati’ as the remover of obstacles 'Vighnaharta'.
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