Lamps lit in a row at dusk.

Festival · 2076

Ganesh Chaturthi 2076

Falls on 2 September 2076 in Lucknow, as computed from the real sky for that city.

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Today's three riddles

Turn a card. Answer all three rightly and this portal is sealed in your sky. New riddles every morning.

Wishing you a blessed Ganesh Chaturthi

May every beginning this year be clear of obstacles, and may you clear the way for someone else.

A verse for the day

ॐ शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः ।

oṁ śaṁ no mitraḥ śaṁ varuṇaḥ ।

Its meaning

Om. Be gracious to us, Mitra; be gracious, Varuna.

Taittirīya Upaniṣad 1.1.1

When, for Lucknow

2 September 2076

Shukla Chaturthi · until 2:28 AM, 3 September 2076

Kept on the day its tithi runs at midday (madhyahna).

Do

After the immersion, go back to the river, lake or sea and clear what was left on its bank: flowers in plastic, thermocol, cloth.

Leave aside

Immersing plaster and plastic in rivers. Clay returns to the earth; plastic does not.

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Wishing you a blessed Ganesh Chaturthi

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In 18,221 days

The sky that day

The Moon
Shukla Chaturthi
The Sun is in
Simha
The Moon is in
Kanya, in Chitra

The Moon is four days past new, a slim crescent that sets in the evening; Ganesha is welcomed at midday, while the Sun stands highest.

What the day is

The remover of obstacles, invited home for ten days and then given back to the water. The immersion is the teaching, not the arrival.

The story

3 stories the day keeps. Turn each card.

1 / 3The son at the doorTurn ↻

Parvati shaped a boy from the turmeric paste of her bath, gave him life, and set him to guard her door. When Shiva came and was refused, the boy fell in the struggle. Shiva, grieving, gave him the head of an elephant and made him first among all: every worship, every beginning, opens with Ganesha.

Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita.

2 / 3Around his parentsTurn ↻

Shiva and Parvati asked their sons to circle the world. Kartikeya set off at once on his peacock. Ganesha walked slowly around his mother and father and said: you are my world. The race was won by understanding, not by speed.

As the living tradition keeps it.

3 / 3The scribe of the MahabharataTurn ↻

Vyasa needed someone to write down the Mahabharata as he spoke it. Ganesha agreed, on one condition: the pen must never stop. Vyasa answered with his own: Ganesha must understand every verse before he wrote it. So the great story was written by a god who had to think before every line.

Mahabharata, Adi Parva, in the longer recensions.

The days around it

2 days kept as one season. Each has its own page.

  1. Ganesh Chaturthi

    Ganesha welcomed home at midday, to be given back to the water.

    You are here
  2. Day 2

    Ananta Chaturdashi

    The tenth day: Ganesha is carried to the water and given back.

What is said, and what is so

Often said

Seeing the Moon tonight brings a false accusation.

The root

The story says the Moon laughed at Ganesha and was cursed, then pardoned at once. Its teaching is never to mock anyone. The tradition itself gives the answer to the worry, freely: hear the story of Krishna and the Syamantaka jewel, and let the fear go.

Often said

The bigger the idol, the greater the blessing.

The root

Ganesha is pleased with a blade of durva grass and a modak. The old murti was shaped from river clay and returned to the river; paint and plaster that do not dissolve harm the water he goes back to.

How to keep Ganesh Chaturthi

Free acts, done by you. Kept so far this year: 0 of 3.

After the immersion, go back to the river, lake or sea and clear what was left on its bank: flowers in plastic, thermocol, cloth.

Learn Vakratunda mahakaya and its meaning, and say it before you begin the thing you have been putting off.

Keep the welcome free of plastic and thermocol: clay, leaves, flowers and cloth that the earth can take back.

Each act is free and done by you. Keeping one writes it to your karma ledger with the day's panchang. Nothing here is ever bought, and no act is a remedy.

The family's part

The youngest

Shapes a small Ganesha from clay with an elder, and at the end immerses it in a bucket of water at home and pours that water onto a plant.

The eldest

Tells the story of the boy at Parvati's door, and how Ganesha was welcomed in their own childhood home.

Everyone

On the day of immersion, each person names one thing they are ready to let go of, and lets it go with him.

How India keeps it

  • Maharashtra

    In 1893 Lokmanya Tilak brought Ganesha out of the home into the street, as a public, sarvajanik festival that gathered whole neighbourhoods together. Ten days later the city walks him to the sea calling Ganpati Bappa Morya, come again soon next year.

  • Homes across India

    Ganesha stays one and a half, five, seven or ten days, as each family keeps it, and is then carried to water for the visarjan, the immersion. He is invited, honoured, and given back.

  • Goa

    Chavath: Konkani homes hang a canopy of fruits and forest plants, the matoli, above the image.

  • Karnataka

    Gowri Ganesha: Gauri, his mother, is worshipped the day before, and the son follows her home.

  • Tamil Nadu

    Vinayaka Chaturthi: small clay images in every home, and kozhukattai, the steamed sweet dumplings he loves.

The day, for Lucknow

2 September 2076

Kept on the day its tithi runs at midday (madhyahna).

Tithi
Shukla Chaturthi · until 2:28 AM, 3 September 2076
Nakshatra
Chitra
Sunrise – Sunset
5:46 AM – 6:24 PM
Abhijit Muhurta
11:40 AM – 12:30 PM
The full day →

The day is chosen by the moment the tradition reads its tithi at, and the times are that day's own, computed for this city. A festival-specific puja window is not printed: those rules differ by tradition and await a scholar's review.

For another city

The stories, their sources and the regional customs on this page await a scholar's review. The sky and the dates are computed for your city.

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