About a week ago, the men of the town began constructing a structure across from our flat which happens to be right beside one of the local temples. They worked late into the night putting together the steel poles. The next day began the painting and the putting up of brightly colored neon lights that flash all night long. Next went in the sound system and finally, the statues of Lord Ganesha. Today began the 10 day long festival of Ganesha; the supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune.
This festival begins a month of many. Unlike Aluna Festival which is more for the girls who fast for many days for their future husbands, this festival is geared for the boys. They stay up late building the pavilions that fill all the societies in town and then they will sleep outside to stay with Ganesha.
The Hindu holy scriptures tell the story of Parvati; the wife of Lord Shiva, and how she created Ganesha from sandalwood out of need of a guard while her husband was away at war. She thought of Ganesha as a son and flew into a rage when her husband, Shiva came home from war and not knowing who Ganesha was, cut off his head. In order to pacify Parvati, men were sent to find a replacement son for Parvati whose head could also be lopped off and pieced together with Ganesha's body. It sounds like a crazy story and that's mostly because it is. The body that was found was that of an elephant and that's why the idol is now a figure of an elephant with many arms.
Driving through any city, town or village in the weeks leading up to this festival, hundreds of statues of Ganesh are being molded and painted by artisans. The colors of these is quite shocking; all neons and brightly made up. There is nothing quite like the Indian love for the bright and flashy. And the best part is that each little community in towns (known as the societies) build their own pavilion for the Ganesha and it gets quite competitive. I hope to find my way to all of the spots during the 10 days. Only problem is, I will be forced to eat more ladu with each of these stops. Ladu is made from ghee (refined butter), sugar and spices. It's delicious but I feel it clogging my arteries and slowing down my movements. Ten days of it and I just might die.
The festival still has 9 days to go and I'll have so much more to write later and plenty of pictures, too. Stay tuned...