elikarma: Mumbai (Bombay)

the south shore of mumbai. check out the waterfront property!

I just got back from Mumbai two days ago. I went to Mumbai because Yom Kippur and Ganpatti were three days apart. Two festivals, two religions, one city - it seemed like the perfect opportunity to see Mumbai, which is the location of the biggest Ganpatti celebration. Ganpatti is the holiday for Ganesh, the god that has the head of an elephant. The story goes that Ganesh got his elephant head because his father (Krishna, I believe) accidentally cut it off while Ganesh was guarding his mother while she was bathing. Krishna had not met his son before, and pledged to replace his head with the first creature he saw, which was an elephant. The holiday takes place for eleven days during which Hindus pray to Ganesh statues found in temples and private homes. On the final day, everyone takes their statue to the water, and immerses it. This is supposed to help Ganesh return to his home. The most popular place to see this happening is Chowpatti beach, which was full of thousands of people. Some of the statues were at least 15-20 feet tall, and required 100+ people to swim them out into the bay. The entire city, and especially the streets around the beach, is one gigantic party. People parade their statue towards the beach for the final immersion. People are dancing and singing to music played by marching bands equipped with drums and an allotment of other various instruments while red paint (Ganesh's color) is thrown on everything and everyone. It was the highlight of my trip to Mumbai.

a family has a ganesh ceremony before ganesh gets sent home via the ocean

the parade/party. the entire city was like this!

a bigger ganesh in the streets
first ganesh ceremony at night

And yes, I also fasted there, which is always a fun annual ritual. I spent yom kippur with the indian diaspora. There are roughly 5000 living in this community, and there are over ten places of worship around Mumbai. The origins of this community are traced to both baghdad and europe, which accounts for the familiarity I felt during the services. The Indian tunes were very similar to the Iraqi tunes.