Ganesh Chaturthi is also known as Vinayaka Chavithi. This festival is celebrated for around 10-11 days every year. This festival marks the birth of Lord Ganesha, who is the god of wisdom and prosperity.

For this festival, most of the people bring home idols of Lord Ganesha and worship him for about 9 days and finally immerse the idols on the 10th day. 

At temples too people offer prayers and celebrate this festival with great galore. 

The history behind Ganesh Chaturthi-

• There are many fictitious parables associated with this festival. Lord Ganesha was made with mud by Parvathi to guard herself while she was having a bath. In her absence, Lord Shiva entered. As he’s unaware of Ganesha being there as the guard, he tries to move Ganesha out of his sight and in the process of fighting against Lord Shiva in order to protect Parvathi, Ganesha loses his life as Lord Shiva chops his head.  
• Exaggerated Parvathi, becomes furious at Lord Shiva and in order to bring out peace and settle Parvathi, Lord Shiva orders his people to get the head of the first found animal in the forest so as to fix it to Lord Ganesha.
• The Devas find the elephant’s head and bring it to fix it on Ganesha’s body. That’s how Ganesha was born with the elephant head.

The festival begins on Vinayaka Chaturthi-

• The celebration begins well- before the festival begins. The people bring idols of Ganesha to their homes and offer prayers to him, offer his favourite foods, perform rituals, sing his songs and finally immerse the idols on the 10th day.
• People recite Vedic carols or hymns from holy books. The idols are offered with red sandalwood paste and yellow and red flowers and also coconut, jaggery, and 21 modaks. 

On this day, people clean houses, temples and workplaces and offer durva ghas, modaks and ladoos to the Lord.

Anant Chaturdashi:

On this day, all the devotees bid farewell to Lord Ganesh asking him to return the next year. They immerse the idols in the nearby local water bodies. 

The essence of prayers:

People ask for forgiveness for their sins and worship the lord for peace, health and prosperity. People often believe it is a tradition to offer prayers to Lord Ganesh before starting any new work.