Happy Birthday, Lord Ganesha! He’s heading back to Mt Kailash today!
Saturday, September 11 is Lord Ganesha’s birthday and the close of the 10 day Hindu Festival during which time he is said to visit us here on Earth. On his birthday, people parade through the streets carrying large and small elaborately painted plaster of Paris figures. So many toxic statues immersed at once has caused an environmental disaster and now “Eco-Gods” like the ones made of clay as shown in the video above. Here’s more from Wikipedia on the Hindu Festival Ganesh Chaturthi and more about the celebration of the elephant headed god and the remover of obstacles, and the patron saint for writers from a post I wrote.
Last August, a group of us made small clay figures of Lord Ganesha out of earth and clay. They dried in the sun, then on Lord Ganesh’s birthday o
n Friday Sept. 3, on the four day of the new moon, several people took their figures to the sea.
I took mine to Burning Man, where we gave out Ganesh bandanas to those experiencing the obstacle of windstorms; I intended to dunk him in a bucket of water, dissolve him, then spread the water out on the playa. But I thought better of it, and placed him in a red mesh bag pillowed with lavender flowers, and brought him to do more travels in our car for this year.
Now it is again the fourth day of the new moon and time to send him to the sea, time for him to return again to Mt Kailash.
Good Bye, Ganesh! I am grateful for all the obstacles you removed for me this past year! Thank you for being with us!
PS Next year, Ganesh Chaturthy 2010 once again occurs during Burning Man…and we will be celebrating it out there once again! I think he’d enjoy another bike ride.
