MUMBAI, INDIA, September 7, 2005: Despite being badly ravaged by rains and post-flood diseases just over a month ago, celebration was in the air all across Maharashtra Wednesday as the 10-day Ganapati festival got underway. The festival, the biggest and most important in India’s most industrialized state, marks Lord Ganesha’s birthday on the fourth day of the bright fortnight of the Bhadrapada month of the Hindu calendar. Colorful processions were taken out as icons of the elephant-headed god – some as high as 25 feet – were installed at public Ganesh mandals festival committees and in millions of households. In the country’s financial hub Mumbai, millions of people took part in the Ganpati festival with chants of “Ganapati Bappa Morya, Mangala Murti Morya” (“Father Ganapati, come again! Auspicious One, come again!”) in praise of Ganesha reverberating throughout the city. All government offices, including banks, stock and commodities markets, were closed Wednesday for the Ganapati festival. Many private sector companies also remained shut.
More than 11 million people participate either directly or indirectly in the Ganapati festival. Various communities joined hands to participate and make the event a success. There are some 7,000 mandals or festival committees registered in the city. Security has been beefed up across the city, although there were no specific threats to hinder the celebrations. Kundan Agaskar, president of a collective body of the 10,000 registered mandals in the city – claims the Ganapati festival remains the biggest public celebration in the world. Many mandals have, however, decided to tone down the tempo this year and spend the money on charity instead in the wake of the devastating floods that killed over 800 people in different parts of Maharashtra. Over 450 were killed in Mumbai alone. This was followed by waterborne epidemics that took more than 170 lives.