The festival of Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated on the fourth day of the month of Bhadarva (11th month in the Hindu calendar). All the Hindus celebrate this day to mark the birthday of Ganesha. The day is celebrated with lots of pomp and pageantry in the State of Maharashtra in India. People make a
statue of Ganesha out of soil and make offering with sweetmeats (ladu). Puja is performed with the use of water, flowers, incense, etc. and a diya' is also lighted. People in the State of Maharashtra celebrate the day with a big procession. The procession passes through villages, bazaars and the statue of Ganesha is finally immersed in a lake, river or sea.

We give importance to this day. There is a legend about this festival. It is said the once Parvitiji was taking her bath. She made a statue of Ganesha, put vital life force in it and put it as a guard outside the door so that no one would enter the bathroom. At that time Lord Shiva arrived there. Ganesha refused him entry. Lord Shiva cut off his head in a rage. Parvati became very angry because of this action. She was very unhappy. Lord Shiva asked Parvati for her forgiveness. He ordered his men to cut out the head of the first one he met. His men met an elephant first and so they chopped his head off. This elephant head was placed on the headless body of Ganesha. Ganesha became alive again. Lord Shiva gave a promise to Parvati: "Your son, Ganesha, will be the first one to be worshipped among all the Devas from today". And so even today we worship or do Ganpati's puja first whenever we start an auspicious work. Ganapati is worshipped as the Deva of Knowledge and achievement. Hindus perform his puja even today without fail in order that nothing goes wrong in any work and all that is begun may end well.