Ganesh chathurthi is one of the most significant festival celebrated by people all over the country. Children love and fondly adore Lord Ganesha for his big ears and trunk and consider the lord as their friend who will remove obstacles from their life.Ganesha,the god of wisdom and god of beginnings is worshipped by everyone and people seek Ganesha’s blessings before starting any work.Everyone celebrate Ganesh chathurthi in a joyous manner.They bring clay idol of Ganesha to their home,keep it in a decorated pandal and perform puja.

At Ekadaksha Learning Center,Ganesh chathurthi was celebrated in a creative manner,making eco-friendly Ganesha idols followed by a skit performance.

In the morning assembly,children and teachers sang the “Happy birthday” song for Ganesha which created a mood of celebration for everyone right from the morning.Relishing the traditional “Sweet kozhukattai”,”vadai” and the “Sundal” during their snack time – all ganesha’s favorite snack items – further increased the tempo to the celebration.After enjoying their snacks,children and teachers assembled in the ELC hall for the celebration.

The celebration began with children making their own Ganesha idol using turmeric.Each class was given a big ball of turmeric paste and children made idols of Ganesha in their own creative way.The Ganesha idol’s looked so cute and lovely and one child from each class came forward to place their idol in the decorated pandal.After the children placed their Ganesha idols,lamps were lit and puja performed.

The Skit:

Once the puja was done,Children of ELC performed a small skit titled “Fruit of wisdom” and the characters were -

Vishal as Lord Shiva,Safa Fathima as Goddess Parvathi,SaiPriyanthan as Lord Ganesha,Pandi Ashok as Lord Muruga and Raghavan as Narathar.

The teacher narrated the scenes and children enacted it scene by scene.

The narrator explained about the fruit of wisdom briefly and went into the story.The story began with introducing the Happy Family of Lord shiva with his wife Parvati and their children Ganesha and Muruga playing happily,singing and dancing.Then entered Narada – who is known for creating confusions.Narada entered and gave the mango fruit – the fruit of wisdom to Lord shiva and said it has to be eaten without cutting it to halves.

To choose who has to be given the fruit,Lord shiva then announced the race – Whoever goes around the world three times and comes back first will be the winner and they will be given the fruit.

Listening to this,Muruga set out to go around the world in his vehicle – Pandi Ashok,our Lord Muruga used a small cycle,a modified version of his peacock vehicle and rode in it around the world.

Meanwhile,Saipriyanthan,our Lord Ganesha known for his smart thinking,conveyed he considers his parents as his world,and hence he went around his amma and appa three times using his small vahanam - the mouse vehicle and won the game.Lord shiva then handed over the fruit to Ganesha and the skit ended happily.

The narrator then conveyed the moral of the story to the children – Always listen to your parents,Love your parents and Think smartly.Children enjoyed performing the skit.They did it independently listening to the instructions from their teachers.

Here are the pictures of our skit - 'The fruit of wisdom'

Ganesha idol Visarjan:

Visarjan is the immersion ritual performed at the end of Ganesh chathurthi celebration,the respectful farewell,where the idols are immersed in water.

Our celebration at ELC too ended with the visarjan of our Ganesha idols by the children.One child from each class came forward,took the Ganesha idol made by them and took it to a makeshift pond kept in the hall.They immersed their “turmeric idol” into water and saw the idol getting dissolved and mixing with water,the idol form of the Lord getting dissolved and mixing with the nature.

Click here to see our eco-friendly ganesha idols,the pandal and children doing the visarjan.

It was a lovely celebration where right from making the Ganesha idol ,performing the skit and finally doing the visarjan - all children did their roles independently with enthusiasm and joy.

The festival encourages unity, gratitude, and happiness. It also helps children learn about India’s rich culture and the value of celebrating together. Happy Ganesh Chathurthi to everyone.