Vinayak Chaturthi Festival Hyderabad

Vinayak Chaturthi is celebrated with a lot of fervor and excitement in Hyderabad. Vinayak Chaturthi is celebrated to commemorate the day the Lord Ganesha or Vinayak was born. This festival is celebrated with a lot of dedication and devotion throughout the country and especially in Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad. It is customary to put up an enormous statue of the Lord Ganesha at the Khairatabad in Hyderabad. This idol is taller than thirty feet. On the eleventh day of the Vinayak Chaturthi festival celebrations in Hyderabad large processions of people congregate at the Hussain Sager Lake. The Vinayak Chaturthi Festival lasts for ten days and at the end of the festival it is customary to conclude the festival by immersing the idol of Lord Ganesha in the lake.

The Vinayak Chaturthi Festival is celebrated during the Hindu calendar month of Bhaadrapada that starts on the Shukla Chaturthi or the fourth day after the moon starts waxing. This is generally within the time frame between 20 th of August and 15 th of September. The ten day festival ends on the Ananta Chaturdashi.

Lord Ganesha the elephant headed son of Shiva and Parvati is a popular figure of worship and is believed to the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune.

The Vinayak Chaturthi Festival starts when families or various groups within the community install an idol of Ganesha in their homes or localities. The locality specific idols are installed in mandaps or decorative temporary structures made of bamboo and cloth.

It is common for various localities to participate in competitions. Localities compete with each other to win titles like “best idol�, biggest idol� etc. This festival is also a time when a lot of cultural programs dramas etc are performed in Hyderabad.

The main savory specific the Vinayak Chaturthi in Hyderabad is a sweet dish called modak or modagam. A modak is a dumpling made of rice or wheat flower with a filling of coconut and jaggery.