Ganesh Chaturthi

Parvati made a boy from turmeric paste to guard her bath. Shiva, returning and refused entry, severed his head. Parvati's grief was such that Shiva sent his ganas for the head of the first creature facing north, and they returned with an elephant's.

Clay idols are installed at home or in public pandals for one and a half, three, five, seven or ten days, then immersed. Modaks offered, aarti sung twice daily, and visarjan with processions and drumming. The public form was deliberately built by Lokmanya Tilak in 1893 as a way of assembling large crowds legally under colonial rule. The household festival is ancient, the pandal culture is a specific and recent political innovation.

Modak above all, steamed rice-flour dumplings with coconut and jaggery, twenty-one offered. Also puran poli, karanji, laddoo.

Maharashtra and Goa are the heartland; Mumbai's Lalbaugcha Raja draws millions. In Tamil Nadu and Karnataka it's a quieter household affair with kozhukattai. Hyderabad's Khairatabad idol is among the tallest.