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Vakratunda Mahakaya Suryakoti Samaprabha।

Nirvighnam Kuru Me Deva Sarva-Kaaryeshu Sarvada॥

Goa is known for its Nature, beauty , beaches and people , another reason where in most of the tourists don't know is for celebrating its festivals. It may be Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali, Christmas or any jatra or feast for that matter we see to it that we enjoy each and every moment and also celebrate it religiously.

Tomorrow is Ganesh Chaturthi so you will find entire Goa busy in making preparations for the big day . I know its the covid time, some people might say what is the need to celebrate when time is so much crucial but Ganesh Chaturhti is not just a festival its a feeling of each and every Goan individual who belong to Hindu family and I think no one can stop us in celebrating in our own house with family members. Lord Ganesha here is not considered just as the god but as if its a family member, or a close friend who was staying away from us for entire year and who visits our house once a year for 5 days .

I remember whenever we used to fight in my childhood days my mom would always say "Ganpatik vayat distale, apun gharant ayla ani tumi zagdtat mhan" Which literally means "Ganesha might feel bad because you people are fighting in his presence" such are the emotions attached to Ganesh Chaturthi where every individual have some or the other memories attached to this festival and they are always sweet.

Ganesha Idol is kept in house for 1.5 days or 5 days or 7 days, some people do immersion even on Anant Chaturdashi. As a kid I always wanted to participate in each and every thing related to this festival, it might be decoration, or cleaning our hall so that we can do set up for makhar or even some delicacy preparations like nevryos, laddos, chakris.

If there is newly wedded couple in the house then its more fun, Mostly because of vaje (in hindi you can consider as shagun where in brides family sends lot of things to grooms family).

Day zero begins with making of laddos specially for ganpati which is made of 5 items (cashew nuts, gram dal, puffed rice, til, jaggery). most people do decoration previous day in my house its before 1 week. Some people also have Gauri Agaman(Worshi of Gauri Ganpatis mother), but we do it on the day of Chaturthi itself. Day zero also marks for shopping of Matoli(various wild flowers and plants, fruits ) which is used to offer lord Ganesha. Matoli is always loaded for 5 days.

Fun is during the time when g\Ganesh idol is brought inside house . This is the time any women from the house waits with arti chi thali (diya plate) in her hands also with raath(liquid made out of haldi, sindhur , water ) . When Idol is brought inside we make him sit on nice Rangoli decorated wooden plank. After arati idol is made to sit at least for 5 minutes and then we get him inside and Idol is kept in Devachi Kud(Gods room). We can see him either for this 5 minutes or directly next day early morning when pooja is done. Because once he is moved to Devachi Kud he is again wrapped in news paper and cloth and kept so that no one disturbs him(Thats his me time so that next 5 days he can spend with us ;)).

Once he enters the house you can see adrenaline rush in each and every ones body, every inch of air gets filled with happiness and spirituality. As a growing kid I was always worried about Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Most of the time I avoided going out of Goa for work just in the fear that I might miss out on the Ganesh Chaturhit part. I think only time I missed Ganesh Chaturth was when I was young and someone in the family expired during Ganesh Chaturthi we had to do Visarjan early that year. Also During the time I had gone to Ladakh It was one of my stupid mistake where in I booked my tickets 4 months before without thinking about Ganesh Chaturthi.

While growing up I grew up in joint family it was more fun that time as every one used to come to decorate or help in some or the other way, as days passed people got busy in their own lives and very few were seen actively on their toes in order to help. Also funniest part is all the fights and quarrels were kept aide during this 5 days so that everyone celebrates this festival with happiness. One house has only one Ganapati , motto of this festival in previous days were to get families together.

There are some families who celebrate together even after their family members exceeded 100 - 150 members.

During Portuguese Era Goans were not allowed to celebrate Ganesh Chaturhti in Sarvajanik ways . Sarvajanik Ganpati was started by Lokmanya Tilak so that he could gather all the people together in this festival also so that he could start with its independence movement

Someone in my previous company had asked me its just a festival why are you so excited is it this that you want to be promoter of Hinduism and I had obvious answer, for me being Hindu or following Hinduism is not the religion or culture rather its the way of living life and its the way of finding happiness while being on the path of spirituality.

Although Lord Krishna is supreme head of universe, till today's date we do celebrate everything with Ganesh Vandana first. I do have one soft corner for Ganesh Chaturthi it may be because I had lot of good old memories of my entire family coming together, or it may be because as a Goan always importance was given to this festival, it may also be because lord Ganesha stays only for 5 days . So many things ....

This is just day 0 , Stay tuned for remaining 5 days