Ganesha Chaturthi, known as Vinayaka Chaturthi is the festival to celebrate the birthday of the elephant headed son of Shiva and Parvati. Ganesha is the God of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. Hindus celebrate this festival to bestow their devotion to this God during the festival. It continues for ten long days. This was actually the family festival for the Peshwas, during their rule in the state of Maharastra. Now it is celebrated in a huge and wide manner. Once it was celebrated with the concept to fill up the gap between Brahmin and non- Brahmin community. Undoubtedly this is the festival of community participation and the festival encourages the huge involvement of mass. Ganesha is the god if wisdom and prosperity, each and every Hindu evokes the God before starting any new project or task. It is a common belief that lord Ganesha never discourages any devotee and sends the person back without fulfilling the desire or demand. A number of mythological stories tell the actual fact behind the birth of Lord Ganesha.

The festival of Ganesh Chaturthi has run a long way. It has many changes through the passing passage of time and fulfills the requirement of the society at every stage. From just a family celebration of the Peshwas through the way to evoke nationalism and brotherhood, this festival has turned out to be the huge celebration for the Hindus. The festival starts with the installation of the statues on the platform. Now a day, communities compete with each other in terms of the size of the idol or even with the gorgeousness of the celebration. The lord comes to each and every house to bestow the prosperity and good fortune. Being the honorable guests of the house Ganesha enjoys the hospitability of the members. Ganesha spends ten days with the family and with community and get the huge worships from the devotees from the very core of their hearts. They really enjoy worshiping this God with all kinds of devotion and various arrangements incorporating lighting and decoration. Once the festival is over, the process of immersion is also attractive and enjoyable. The idols are carried on decorated floats to immerse in the water. This journey also demands a special mention being very colourful and so enjoyable and merrymaking. People come to be a witness of this procession of immersion Ganapati idols from all over the world. Such processions are accompanied by drum beats, devoational songs and dancing as well by the holy words and screaming of the devotees with “Ganesh Maharaj ki Jai!!” even there is a plea to the lord to come back next year with all his blessings to bestow on them in the words “Ganapati bappa morya, pudcha varshi laukar ya.”