Shas­tri Boodan

On Tues­day, the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty in T&T—and around the world—be­gan ob­serv­ing the ten-day fes­ti­val of Ganesh Ut­sav, ho­n­our­ing the birth of Lord Ganesh, revered as the re­mover of ob­sta­cles and pa­tron of new be­gin­nings.

In cen­tral Trinidad, the Fe­lic­i­ty Ganesh Ut­sav Fes­ti­vals Com­mit­tee (FGUFC), one of the re­gion’s longest-stand­ing or­gan­is­ers, launched its largest cel­e­bra­tion in its 18-year his­to­ry. The fes­tiv­i­ties opened with the cer­e­mo­ni­al col­lec­tion of the clay mur­ti from the home of lo­cal sculp­tor Dhani­ram Sookdeo on Pierre Road. This year’s idol, paint­ed in serene blue and named “Kr­ish­na Ganesh,” was pa­rad­ed through the streets be­fore ar­riv­ing at the com­pound of Ganesh Ra­goo­nanan, head of the FGUFC.

At Ra­goo­nanan’s home, devo­tees watched as the mur­ti was gen­tly of­floaded via fork­lift, then rit­u­al­ly cleansed with wa­ter, milk, ghee, and hon­ey be­fore its sa­cred in­stal­la­tion. Night­ly prayers—known as Ganesh Pu­ran Yagna—will con­tin­ue un­til Sep­tem­ber 5. The fol­low­ing morn­ing, the idol will be im­mersed in the Cunu­pia Riv­er at the end of Ca­can­dee Road, fol­low­ing a fi­nal com­mu­ni­ty pro­ces­sion.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, Ganesh Ut­sav be­gins on the fourth day of Bhadra­pa­da’s bright half in the Hin­du lu­nar cal­en­dar and con­cludes on the 14th day—a span of ten days that mir­rors the in­ter­na­tion­al ob­ser­vance of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Each morn­ing and evening through­out the fes­ti­val, devo­tees per­form pu­ja and aar­ti, ac­com­pa­nied by gar­lands, rice, sweets, leaves, turmer­ic, ver­mil­lion (sin­door), coins, and oil lamps. The mur­ti is elab­o­rate­ly adorned with flow­ers and or­na­ments and il­lu­mi­nat­ed with lights to ho­n­our Lord Ganesh’s pres­ence.

The fes­ti­val reach­es its zenith on Anan­ta Chatur­dashi, the fi­nal day, when the idol is pa­rad­ed through ju­bi­lant crowds and then sym­bol­i­cal­ly im­mersed in wa­ter—a rit­u­al known as vis­ar­jan, rep­re­sent­ing Ganesh’s home­ward jour­ney to Mount Kailash, the myth­i­cal abode of his par­ents, Shi­va and Par­vati.

Ra­goo­nanan not­ed that devo­tees con­tin­ue to place their faith in Ganesh, re­count­ing nu­mer­ous bless­ings and life-chang­ing ex­pe­ri­ences among wor­ship­pers.

Be­yond its re­li­gious sig­nif­i­cance, Ganesh Ut­sav in T&T is a cul­tur­al ta­pes­try wo­ven from In­di­an her­itage, brought here by in­den­tured labour­ers and adapt­ed in­to the na­tion’s broad­er mul­ti­cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty. The fes­ti­val serves as a pow­er­ful sym­bol of com­mu­ni­ty, re­silience, and spir­i­tu­al uni­ty.