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9. Ganesh Chaturthi
Ganesha Chaturthi is the day that we
celebrate Lord Ganesha. It is celebrated
on the birthday of Lord Ganesha. This
celebration normally lasts 10 days.
Ganesha is the god of wisdom and the
remover of all obstacles. There are many
stories associated with Lord Ganesha. I
will show some of them in the stories
section of this presentation.

10. History of Ganesh Chaturthi
Ganesha Chaturthi is one of India’s
most celebrated holidays. It usually starts on
the forth day of the waxing moon period
(usually between August 20 and September
15). The festival usually lasts 10 days.
Almost all families in India celebrate this
holiday. They decorate statues of Ganesha
lavishly and do poojas dedicated to him.
People make sweets to offer to Lord
Ganesha. The sweets normally consist of
ladoos, rice pudding, and different foods
depending on where you live. Temples
normally make statues to be released into a
nearby river.

11. Origins of Ganesh Chaturthi
The first public Ganesh Chaturthi
was first celebrated in 1989 in Pune,
India. This celebration was put
together by Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Before that the Ganesh
Chaturthi was a private thing
that everybody did in their own
homes.

12. Stories About Lord Ganesha

13. The birth of Ganesha Part 1
The story goes that Lord Ganesha wasn’t
actually born to Shiva and Parvati but instead
created by Parvati using turmaric powder. Parvati
wanted a son that would be loyal to her. So she
shaped the powder into the shape of her wanting,
strong and beautiful, and then brought him to life.
Parvati was overjoyed to have a son that she could
truly call her own. Later when Parvati was going
to bathe she gives Ganesha a staff and tells him to
not let anybody in without permission. After a
while Shiva comes and wonders who the
mysterious boy was, as he tries to enter Parvati’s
living quarters Ganesha stops him. Shiva tries to
explain that he was Parvati’s wife but Ganesha
ignores him and hits Shiva with his staff. Shiva
becomes furious and tries to battle him, Shiva
realizes that he was no ordinary boy so he sends
his followers to try to defeat the boy, but instead
the exact opposite happens and Ganesha beats
them all.

14. The birth of Ganesha Part 2
Shiva asks the boy who he was and he
replies by saying that “I am the son of Parvati and
none cane enter here without my mothers
permission”. Shiva then grow furious and sends his
entire army to fight the little boy and yet Ganesha
prevails with the help of Kali and Durga. After that
Shiva asks Vishnu to come and help him. In the
battle Shiva goes so mad that he throws his trident as
Ganesha and beheads him. When Shiva realized
what he had done he whishes that he had never done
what he did. When Parvati hears of what happened
she decides to destroy the world but Brahma asks for
mercy and to not destroy the world. Parvati agrees
but only under two conditions, that her son comes
back to life and that he is worshipped before any
other god. Shiva apologizes and the sends Brahma to
go North and bring him the head of the first animal
they encounter. Brahma soon returns with the head
of an elephant.(The head of Gajasura)

15. The birth of Ganesha Part 3
Brahma fitted the head of the elephant to the
boy and sprinkled water on him. Ganesha awake with
the head of an elephant on his shoulders. Parvati goes
and embraces her son. Shiva then confronts Parvati and
announces that from then on the boy shall be named
Ganesha, the chief of Shiva’s Ganas, and Vigneshwar,
the remover of all obstacles. Shiva also says that
Ganesha will be treated like a god and that he shall be
worshipped before any god.

16. How did Lord Ganesha get a broken tusk?
Story 1
While Shiva went to go and rest in his
room, he told Ganesh to keep guard. After a
while Purshuram a pupil and a devotee of Lord
Shiva came and asked entrance so he may speak
with Lord Shiva. Lord Ganesh obeying his
father did not let Purshuram in. They started to
fight using words as their weapons, but finally
Purshuram had enough and he throws his ax at
Ganesh. Ganesh knowing that the ax was a gift
that Purshuram had gotten from his father didn’t
do anything. The ax hit Ganesha on one of his
tusks and broke it off. In the commotion Shiva
and Parvati come out and see what Purshuram
did. Purshuram asks for mercy and forgiveness.
After Ganesha is revived by his father he
forgives Purshuram.

17. How did Lord Ganesha get a broken tusk?
Story 2
When Sage Ved Vyasa comes up
with the idea of Mahabharat he looks
around to find someone who would
write the story down as he recited them.
He decides to ask Ganesha to do it for
him. Ganesha agrees to do it. To write
the script Ganesha breaks off a tip of his
tusk.

18. Ganesha and the Moon
Lord Ganesha loved to eat sweets,
especially pudding and ladoos. On one of his
birthdays he goes around getting as many sweets
as he could. After he ate to his full Ganesha set off
to his house on his loyal companion, his mouse.
On the way home the mouse sees a snake and gets
frightened. Because of this Lord Ganesha slips off
of the mouse and falls. Because of the fall Lord
Ganesha’s stomach bursts open allowing all of the
pudding and ladoos to fall out. Lord Ganesha puts
all the sweets back into his belly and ties the snake
that had scared the mouse around his belly. The
moon who had seen all of this happen laughed.
Lord Ganesha got mad at the moon and hurled one
of his tusks at the moon. He then put a curse on
the moon, saying that whoever looked at the moon
on Chaturthi day, Ganesha’s birthday, and
whoever did look at the moon would get bad luck.

19. Ganesha goes around the world
One day Kumaraswami, Ganesha’s
brother, comes to Shiva and gives him a fruit
and tells him to give it to his favorite son.
Shiva decides to give them a test to decide
who was his favorite son. He tells them both
to go around the world as fast as they can.
Kumaraswami instantly hops onto his steed,
a peacock, and sets off. When he comes back
he finds that Ganesh had already finished the
task. Kumaraswami knew that Ganesha was
slow and asked him how he had finished
before him. Ganesha replied by saying “My
mother and father are my world, they are my
universe, I just went around them”.

20. Gajasura
Gajasura was an elephant demon.
Gajasura was also a great devotee of Shiva. So
one day he started to pray to Lord Shiva to get a
boon. After some years Shiva appeared to grant a
boon. Gajasura asks that Shiva reside inside his
stomach, and Shiva accepted. Later Parvati
started to get worried because she did not see
Shiva anywhere. Parvati went and asked Lord
Vishnu to go and search for Shiva. Vishnu
disguised himself as a street player and took
Nandi, Shiva’s steed, to go and search. After a
long time they finally found Gajasura and asked
him to release Shiva. Gajasura accepted but only
if Vishnu gave him one more boon. He asked
Vishnu to make him immortal, and Vishnu
agreed. Later when Ganesha lost his head Shiva
sent them to get the head of the first animal they
encounter knowing that it would be Gajasura the
elephant. When Gajasura’s head was attached to
Ganesha became immortal granting the boon he
had asked for.

21. Ganesha and his mouse
• Story 1
Gajamukha, a demon, did prayer to Lord Shiva
and got a boon that would make him invincible.
Gajamukha started to terrorize the heavens. The gods
not knowing what to do sent for Ganesha. Ganesha
starts to do battle with the demon by growing big. After
a while Ganesha realizes that Gajamukha couldn’t be
defeated so he turns him into a big mouse and makes
him his steed.
• Story 2
Once in the court of Indira, the king of Devas,
Krauncha insulted the sage Vaamedeva and for that he
was cursed and turned into a mouse by the sage. Then
Krauncha went and wrecked havoc in the dwelling of
the sage Paraashara. Paraashara asked Ganesha to come
and save his house. Ganesha came and brought the
mouse under his control and made him his steed.

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