A Tale of Two Festivals

Double celebrations this week with Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi falling on consecutive days. Kids and Andrew all at home and so we had a chance to unwind and continue to get to know the house. Our driver and maid are both Hindu and so we were full service on Wednesday, but gave them Thursday off.

There aren't many important religious celebrations where those from outside the faith are actively welcome to join in, but Ganesh Chaturthi is one of them - as befits a happy looking God, Ganesha is apparently thrilled that you want him in your house and to be part of his birthday party. After some informal chat with our relocation consultant and dusting off knowledge from career number 1, I was determined that the Mogendorffs would add their voices to the birthday offerings and prayers - Malini called them wishes.

The children started early on Wednesday by singing the Happy Birthday song for Ganesha at breakfast. I had to burst their bubble by reminding them that Thursday was Ganesha, Wednesday was Eid. Given that Eid is, and should be, reserved for those who actually did fast during Ramadan, we spent the day shopping and enjoying bacon sandwiches for supper...

The last leg of our shopping was to ask Mahesh, our driver, to help us locate a Ganesha statue for the house. You can buy ornamental ones everywhere, but for the festival you need a pottery one as they need to be submerged and dissolved at the end. He took us to a roadside stall and came to help us pick one out (and not get overcharged). We went on the small end of the spectrum for two reasons: not to be ostentatious, and more practically, to fit in our bucket for dissolving. I have not seen a sign saying that Palm Meadows residents are all going for a mass statue dunking in the pool so we'll assume that is not OK. I suspect most locals will go to the lake. Of course, Dara needed her own Ganesha. He is shiny and happy and very pink, what is not to like? He will not get dissolved.



Our big Ganesha



Dara's pink mini-Ganesha

When we arrived home our maid, Suma, was still here. She greeted us and Ganesha very warmly. Then, I got in trouble again as I went to put him in the Shrine. She had not cleaned it, and he couldn't possibly go in. We had given her the day off today, but she insisted that as she was working next door in the morning, she would come, clean the shrine and then help us do pooja properly; and she did.

Our pooja room/shrine is in the kitchen

Freshly cleaned pooja room

We had most of what we needed, flowers, fruit, candy, incense - just not enough, and while I suspect Ganesha would be OK with us just doing our best, Suma got us right with some fairy lights, camphor, nuts, oil lamps and dye. Dara wore her best new dress and I donned my new silk khurti for the ceremony.

Dara's first ever bindi

Be-bindi'd kids

Lots of fruits for Ganesha

Untangling the purple string lights

The children worked with Suma to arrange everything. I got to light the lamps and incense and then she led us through the Sanskrit invocation before we censed the offerings and ourselves. The final part was individual prayer. Then you get to eat the candy, and you're done.

Andrew really likes that it all takes place at home - family oriented in your place. The children loved that we set stuff on fire. Dara liked helping to set things out, and Toby liked the chanting in Sanskrit. I was happy that we all did it together and took the time to do it right - other then substituting Bounty Bars for actual coconut...