Mumbai Parties, pray for an elephant-headed god: NPR

On the west coast of India, revelers hoist statues of an elephant-headed god and parade them to the sea of ​​Oman. They sing and sing and distribute food to passersby.

For 10 days, they perform Pooh – Hindu prayers – at the feet of the statues and then plunge them into water plans.

It's a tradition in Mumbai, India's largest city, towards the end of each year's monsoon rains: a festival in honor of Ganesh or Lord Ganesha, the Hindu god of wisdom and luck. He has a human body and an elephant head.

Families buy an idol of Ganesh for the occasion and pray at home before heading to the beach. Neighborhoods gather to erect temporary scenes called pandals, on which they place giant statues of Ganesh, and organize neighborhood festivals around them.

The Ganpati Festival, as it is also called, is celebrated throughout India, with faithful immersed idols in lakes, streams and even artificial ponds dug for the occasion. But the coast of the Arabian Sea in Mumbai is the place where it is celebrated with the greatest fervor.

"We have a lot of faith, we have seen the time since, you know, we do not spend much, the celebration was limited," says Amruta Savant, 33, celebrating with her uncles and children. "But every year we have prosperity and we fulfill our wishes, so faith continues to increase."

She places her idol in the sand and surrounds it with offerings – coconut and strings of marigolds. She lights incense, while her parents sing praises to Ganesh. Then, one by one, they kneel in front of the idol and whisper their wishes in the ears of the statue.

Rescuers maneuver the beach at any time, while young and old worshipers throw themselves into the waves, usually at night. They believe that when Lord Ganesha is submerged, he goes straight to heaven.

"We dive it three times and the third time we leave it in the water," says Savant. "It will melt in the sea itself."

Many idols are now biodegradable, so they do not wash later or pollute marine life. But some are still made from plaster of Paris, which does not disintegrate. Cleaning workers arrive with trucks the next morning to transport worn statues.

In the largest slum in Mumbai, idols adorn a maze of small, immaculately clean huts. A local company, Reality Tours, takes tourists around the corner showing them the variations of the different statues of Ganesh and explaining the history to them.

Ganesh has been worshiped by Hindus for centuries. But this festival really took off after 1893, as a cunning trick by a freedom fighter.

When India was under British rule, curfews were often imposed to prevent independence-minded Indians from gathering for demonstrations or political meetings. Public gatherings were banned, with the exception of religious gatherings.

Thus, in 1893, the Indian liberation fighter Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak invented a plot: he told the British that it was a major 10-day religious festival that required people to gather in the streets and streets. beaches around the idols of Ganesh.

"He was a social reformer and also [an] An Indian scholar, and he had this idea to mislead the British, "said tour guide Suraj Hattarkal. It was a trick, to gather the whole community and share some revolutionary things. "

India became independent of Britain on August 15, 1947.

Nowadays, the festival is a massive festival. There are processions, dance and drum. People distribute treats in the crowd. Ganesh's specialties include modak, a type of sweet dumpling filled with grated coconut, and laddusbaked spheres made of purified butter, flour, sugar and dried fruits.

"Everyone shares, we have food for 200 to 300 people!" says Ashish Tivari, a 22-year-old medical student celebrating with his neighbors.

Among them, Vinayak, 8, seized the microphone of this journalist.

"I'm his neighbor too!" the boy shouted. Ganesh "is a god – our god"

Has he made a wish? Of course, he says, but it's a secret.

One of the songs you hear, as people bid farewell to Ganesh, plunged into the water, is: "Can we see you again next year."