Ganesha’s Birthday 2011: Celebrate with us at Burning Man Weds August 31!

Each year around late August or early September, the birthday of Lord Ganesha is celebrated for many days in an event called Ganesh Chaturthi.

According to Wikipedia, the festival for Ganesh “is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Bhaadrapada, starting on the shuklachaturthi (fourth day of the waxing moon period). The date usually falls between 20 August and 15 September. The festival lasts for 10 or 12 days, ending on Anant Chaturdashi. This festival is observed in the lunar month of bhadrapada shukla paksha chathurthi madhyahana vyapini purvaviddha.^[8]”

This year, according to a site with dates for Hindu Festivals, that day is Thursday September 1 in India and Weds. August 31 here in the United States. On those days, I’ll be at Burning Man in northern Nevada wearing a tied dyed dress with Ganesh silkscreened on it. Our camp in Kidsville will have two large banners with Ganesh on them and periodically I’ll get one of them onto my bicycle and we’ll ride around and, with a little help from my friend Steve McCarthy of NewRepublic Printing Company, give out Ganesh on a bicycle stickers with Burning Man 2011. In 2009, Steve made us stickers and silkscreened bandanas and other items also but I doubt if we’ll be doing any more Ganesh bandanas in 2011! That was a huge job and expense!)

I’m not sure yet exactly where we’ll be when that day, but I will post more details here.

And if you can’t get to Burning Man? And you’d like a sticker? Send us a snail mail request along with SASE and we’ll send you a sticker of Ganesh on a bike–complete with some playa dust! Here’s our address at Burning Man:

Art Predator  aka Gwendolyn Alley
5:30 & Divorce
Kidsville
Black Rock City, Nevada

For more wonderful drawings of Ganesh, check out Rajan Draws; Rajan drew and gave us the image we used for these stickers to give out at Burning Man and to use for the ArtRides.

Here are some other posts and a few 3:15 experiment poetry I wrote about Ganesh, the Remover of Obstacles: