Ganesh Chaturthi is here. It is a time for everyone to seek inner spirituality and enjoy the festival to its fullest. In the 10 days of this festival, you get to seek His blessings and witness how other people are celebrating this festival. It is a time for celebrating good over evil, and also to enjoy the various delicacies that are made during this time.

Especially in the big cities of Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad, it is considered lucky to get the darshan of the Lord Ganesh while He is at the pandal. In fact, many people believe that all your wishes come true if you visit certain pandals in the city.

Earlier Ganesh Chaturthi was a homely affair, with people bringing idols of Ganesh at their homes and immersing them at water bodies nearby after 10 days. However, now, cooperative ‘mitramandal’ Ganesh pandals is all the rage and is seen as more easier and economical than doing it all by yourself at home. Some of these pandalGaneshas have become so popular that there are never ending lines to visit them during the 10 days of Ganesh Chaturthi.  Some of these pandals include Lalbaugcha Raja and Andhericha Raja in Mumbai and HathiGanpati in Pune.

During the 10 days of Ganesh Chaturthi, you need to offer the Lord Prasad whenever needed. Generally, some mithai or modaks are given as Prasad. Nowadays, with the bigger pandals, you can find chappanbhog items being offered as Prasad.

What is ChappanBhog?

Chappanbhog or 56 dishes are a collection of 56 types of various dishes that were originally offered to Lord Krishna.  This consists of dry sweets, dal, vegetables, sweets, kheer and other items that were originally offered to Lord Krishna.

Due to the difficulty in making such items, it was only offered by the royalty to the God. However, with many of the items which can now be bought from the stores, it is now very convenient for people to make a chappanbhog Prasad to be offered to Lord Ganesha.

This Ganesh Chaturthi, let us celebrate this festival with a renewed sense of pomp and celebrations. These 10 days aren’t going to come back again. We need to ensure we can have the best kind of celebrations at all times. If you are too busy, you can only visit your local Ganesh Pandal and seek His blessings. That generally would be enough.