Muscat: Sri Ganesh Festival Committee Gears Up for 26th Year Celebrations
Daijiworld Media Network – Muscat (VA)
Muscat, Aug 28: Following last year’s roaring success of Ganesha Festival’s five-day silver jubilee celebrations, the Sri Ganesh Festival Committee is geared up for the 26th year of celebrations at the Shiva Temple Hall, here.
(File Pics)
Preparations are on to make it a grand success. This year Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi will fall on Saturday, September 11. Hence the festivities will begin on September 11 starting with the pranapratishta puja and will conclude on September 13 night with immersion rituals.
As in the previous years, hundreds of volunteers from Tuluva/Kannada community from Karnataka are expected to gather on the previous day itself to decorate the temple hall with utmost devotion. In order to give a festive look, starting with the hall entrance the entire hall is neatly decorated in a traditional way with plantain leaf stems, mango leaves and fresh flowers such as marigold, rose, shavantige, jasmine, and so on.
It is noteworthy that every year fresh flowers weighing more than 250 kilos are flown in from Bangalore, Kerala, Mangalore and Mumbai. It is a rare occasion for the devotees to witness the fresh flower decoration in such grandeur.
The three-days of festivity will see various rituals like Pranaprathistapana, Panchamrita Abhisheka, Gana Homa, Arathi, Maha Pooja, 108 coconuts offering, Ranga Pooja and so on which will be performed with great piety.
On all the three days the temple hall will to reverberate the Vedic Chants, Ganapati Sahasranama Smarane, melodious devotional songs / bhajans, Veena recitals, devotional dances like Odissi, ballets and Bharatanatyam.
Devotees will witness a feast of cultural/devotional extravaganza. As many as 24 groups are going to perform in praise of Lord Ganesha. Thousands of devotees are expected to throng the temple hall.
Sri Ganesh Festival Committee, Muscat comprises Pitambar B Alke, S K Poojary, Koni Prakash Naik, Ramanand Kunder, Ramesh Shettigar, Shashidhar Shetty, Umesh Karkera, Nagesh Shetty, Karunakar Rao, Ashok Kotian, Ravi Kanchan and the recently co-opted members, Gurudas Pejathaya, Shreenivas Shriyan, Dr Anchan C K and Kashinath N Anchan.
Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the most popular of Hindu festivals and observed throughout India as well as by the devoted Hindus in all parts of the world. The spectacular festival honors the birth of the Hindu elephant headed god, Lord Ganesha, popularly worshiped for his ability to remove obstacles and bring good fortunes.