Monday, August 31, 2009

At the Beach During Ganesh Festival

According to Paige's Indian Studies teacher, Ganesh's Birthday was a week ago Sunday. Part of the celebration is to make or buy a statue of Ganesh made out of clay. Within 10 days after his birthday, a puja (prayer ceremony) is performed and Ganesh is returned to the sea, back to mother earth. This is done as a rejuvination for the coming year with hope that it will bring prosperity and good fortune.

I was hoping I could see Ganesh returned to he sea and thought I would head down to the beach on Saturday or Sunday. We had our good friends, the Klingonsmith's, over for dinner on Sunday and decided to take a walk to the beach after we ate. We were somewhat bummed when we arrived because nobody was there. After walking 15 minutes up the beach, we decided to turn around and head home. As we got closer to our lane, a lorry pulled up loaded with people and Ganesh statues - Yeah!

The following is a slide show of some of the shots I took on the beach that afternoon. Luckily, Indian people LOVE having their picture taken (they come right up to you saying "photo please") so it was no problem capturing this event.



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1 comment:

  1. CurtySeptember 8, 2009 at 12:18 AM

    Awesome! I love Ganesh...and so did all my 5th graders when I taught a block on India...they made clay Ganeshes too, but we didn't return them to mother earth. Maybe that's why my luch has been so poor since then (just kidding). We miss you!!!!! I got to see Jay and Kim at Chris's wedding. They are going to India for X-mas? How cool! I want to visit!

    Take care,
    Uncle Curty

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