Ganesh Chaturthi 2029
गणेश चतुर्थी
Ganesh Chaturthi falls on Tuesday, 11 September 2029 in New Delhi, on Shukla Chaturthi.
Ganesh Chaturthi marks the birth of Ganesha, who's welcomed into homes and public pandals as a clay image and later immersed in water. It's a home festival in much of India, and in Maharashtra it became a huge public event in the 1890s.
Why this date
CalculatedIt falls on Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi, the fourth lunar day of the bright fortnight, and Chaturthi has to be in force at midday, the Madhyahna window, when Ganesha is said to have been born. Because this is in the bright half, the month has the same name in both north and south reckoning.
That’s 19 days later than 23 August 2028 last year. Why it jumped
- Chaturthi begins
- 11 Sept, 6:09 AM
- It ends
- 12 Sept, 2:58 AM
2029 date by city
| New Delhi | Tue, 11 Sept |
|---|---|
| Mumbai | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Kolkata | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Chennai | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Bengaluru | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Hyderabad | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Ahmedabad | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Pune | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Jaipur | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Lucknow | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Patna | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Varanasi | Tue, 11 Sept |
| London | Tue, 11 Sept |
| New York | Tue, 11 Sept |
| San Francisco | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Toronto | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Sydney | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Singapore | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Dubai | Tue, 11 Sept |
| Port Louis | Tue, 11 Sept |
Dates in bold differ from New Delhi’s. Calculated by rule; local practice can differ.
One festival, many stories
Puranic traditionThe boy Parvati made
The Shiva Purana's Rudra Samhita tells how Parvati shaped a boy and set him to guard her door, and how Shiva, not knowing him, cut off his head and then gave him an elephant's. Other Puranas tell it differently, and the variation itself is well worth noticing.
Pan-IndianDon't look at the moon
The common story is that Ganesha, laughed at by the moon for his round belly, cursed anyone who looks at it on this night to be falsely accused. Devotees relate it to Krishna's false accusation over the Syamantaka gem, a story in the Bhagavata Purana (10.56–57). The gem story is in the text, but its link to this night is popular tradition.
MaharashtraTilak and the public Ganapati
Ganapati was already honoured by the Peshwas in Pune. In the 1890s, Bal Gangadhar Tilak promoted public celebrations through his newspaper Kesari, at a time when religious gatherings gave cover for nationalist organising under British rule. Credit is disputed: many accounts note that Bhau Rangari installed a public image in 1892, a year before Tilak's better-known campaign.
Common questions
What people do
- Installing a clay image at home or in a public pandal
- Offering modak, durva grass and red flowers
- Keeping the image for one and a half, three, five, seven, ten or more days
- Carrying the image in procession and immersing it in water
Why is Ganesha immersed in water?
Because the image is treated as temporary: it's made of clay, a deity is invited into it, and then it's returned to the earth and water. Different families give different meanings to this, including one about the cycle of creation and dissolution. Plaster images and paint have made immersion an environmental concern, and many cities and families now prefer clay or artificial tanks.
Why don't people look at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi?
Because of a traditional story in which the moon, having mocked Ganesha, is cursed, so that looking at it on this night brings a false accusation. There's no evidence of any such effect, and it's kept up as a story and custom.
Who started the public Ganesh festival?
Bal Gangadhar Tilak is usually credited, for promoting it in the 1890s, though Bhau Rangari is said to have set up a public image in 1892. The private festival is much older than either.
Ask your elders
“Ask your family how many days your Ganesha stayed, and why that number. If they grew up in Pune or Bombay, ask what the immersion processions felt like before loudspeakers took over.”
Sources
- Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, Kumara Khanda
- Bhagavata Purana 10.56–57
- James G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Rosen, 2002), entry “Ganesh Chaturthi”
- Richard Cashman, The Myth of the Lokamanya (University of California Press, 1975)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Ganesh Chaturthi”