Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi is observed on Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi, the fourth tithi of the waxing fortnight of the lunar month of Bhadrapada. The deity honoured is Ganesha. The observance is a 10-day Ganesh utsav, and it is kept across Pan-India. This page explains why the festival is kept, how its date is fixed from the panchang, and how it is observed in different regions.

Significance and story

Ganesha is invoked at the beginning of undertakings, and Ganesh Chaturthi is the day set apart for him in the lunar year. The tithi itself — Shukla Chaturthi of Bhadrapada — is the calendrical anchor of the observance, and the ten days that follow carry the utsav through to its close.

The festival is kept as a household and community observance rather than a private rite alone. The murti is installed, honoured daily, and — after the period of the utsav — returned to water. The mood is one of welcome and farewell rather than of petition alone: the deity is received into the home or the neighbourhood, and the departure is marked with the same care as the arrival.

Because the observance is Pan-India, the story and emphasis attached to it vary by region and by family. What stays constant is the tithi, the deity, and the ten-day span of the utsav.

How the date is fixed

Hindu festival dates are not fixed to the Gregorian calendar. They follow the tithi, and where a festival is tied to a nakshatra or a solar ingress, that element is followed instead. Ganesh Chaturthi is tied to the tithi: Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi.

This is why the Gregorian date changes from year to year, and why it can differ by a day between places. The tithi is reckoned for a given location and sunrise, so a city further east or west may fall on a different civil date for the same tithi. The reckoning also depends on whether the calendar in use is amanta or purnimanta, since the two systems name and sequence the lunar months differently.

Exact Gregorian dates are computed each year from the panchang and listed on this page. The dates given here are for New Delhi sunrise with Lahiri ayanamsha. If you are observing from another city, or your family follows a different calendar convention, check the local panchang for your place before fixing the day.

Puja vidhi

The vidhi differs by household, region and the form of the observance — a home installation over the full ten days, a shorter home observance, or a community mandal. The outline below is the common shape of the rite, not a single mandated sequence.

• Sankalpa and invocation. The observance opens with the resolve to keep the vrata and with the invocation of Ganesha.
• Installation of the murti. The murti — clay, or another material according to family practice — is placed and seated for the period of the utsav.
• Daily offering. Offerings are made each day of the ten-day utsav. Flowers, durva and modak are customary in many traditions; the specifics follow the family or the mandal.
• Recitation. Ganesha is addressed through the stotras and names familiar to the household. Which are recited, and in what order, is a matter of lineage and local custom.
• Visarjan. At the close of the utsav, the murti is taken in procession and returned to water.

For personal charts, vrata detail, or any question of individual practice, consult a qualified jyotishi or your family purohit. Nothing on this page is a personal prescription.

Regional variations

Ganesh Chaturthi is Pan-India, and the observance takes a different shape in different places.

• Home and community. In some regions the emphasis is on the household installation; in others the ten-day utsav is organised by neighbourhood mandals, with the murti installed and honoured publicly.
• Length and close. The utsav runs ten days. Within that span, families and mandals may bring the visarjan forward or keep it to the close, according to local custom.
• Calendar convention. Amanta and purnimanta reckonings place the month differently, which can shift the civil date by a day. Both are in use, and neither is an error.
• Offerings and recitation. The naivedya and the stotras recited vary by region and by lineage.

Where traditions differ, this page states the difference rather than choosing one. Your family's convention, and your local panchang, settle the detail.

What to avoid

• Do not treat the dates on this page as universal. They are for New Delhi sunrise with Lahiri ayanamsha; other places and other conventions may differ by a day.
• Do not read the tithi as a personal forecast. This page is descriptive of the festival, not predictive for any individual's health, money, marriage or legal matters.
• Do not substitute this page for your family purohit or a qualified jyotishi on questions of vrata, sankalpa or personal practice.
• Do not assume one regional form of the observance is the standard. Home and mandal, amanta and purnimanta, North and South — the differences are traditional, not deviations.