Ganesh Visarjan 2020: Lord Ganesha bid adieu in a low-key manner amid Covid-19
Ganesh Visarjan 2020: The ten-day Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations began on August 22 and have come to and end on September 1. The festivities all over were subdued owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ganesh Chaturthi, celebrated annually marks the birth of Lord Ganesha who is the God of new beginnings. The festivities are spread over ten days and this year they began on August 22. September 1 marks the end of the ten-day celebrations when the visarjan or immersion in a water body takes place, as a way of bidding adieu to the God.
Lord Ganesha is touted as the symbol of fresh starts, wisdom, writing, travel and good fortune. Some of his other names are Ganpati, Gajanana, Gajadant, that are among his 108 names.
The excitement for Ganesh Chaturthi festivities begins weeks before the actual festival when several people start making clay idols of Lord Ganesha and painting them.
During Ganesh Chaturthi, devotees throng to temples and special Ganesh Chaturthi pandals to pay respects to the Lord.
SEE PHOTOS: Ganesh Visarjan 2020: Devotees bid farewell to Lord Ganesha on Day 10 of Ganesh Chaturthi
Several families also bring Ganpati home ahead of the festival, host him for the 10-day festivities and see him off at the end of the festival.
On the day of Ganpati Visarjan, devotees chant ‘Ganapati Bappa Morya’ while seeing the Lord off, taking our strife and worries with and leaving His blessings behind.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic this year, the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had introduced a ‘one-ward-one-Ganpati’ concept to ensure social distancing measures in Mumbai. Ganeshotsav celebrations were barred from being held publicly in New Delhi this year.
For Ganpati Visarjan, more than 35,000 police personnel were deployed across Mumbai and the BMC also made arrangements for incident-free immersion of idols on the occasion of Anant Chaturdashi.
Till Tuesday noon, a total of 492 Ganesh idols, including 16 from public pandals and 476 installed by residents at home, were immersed at various visarjan points here, an official said.
Out of these, 10 idols of the public mandals and 199 idols installed by people at their homes were immersed in artificial lakes set up for the purpose, he said, adding there was no any untoward incident so far during the immersion.
Various wings of the police department are manning the streets and the security personnel are also keeping a close warch on the immersion with the help of about 5,000 CCTV cameras, the official added.
In a bid to avoid crowding, police have appealed to people to not perform ‘aarti’ at the visarjan spots before immersion of idols.
Instead, people were asked to perform the ritual at their residences before stepping out, an official said on Monday.
-- with PTI inputs
