(Photo: PHOTO COURTESY OF KISHOR PATHARE)
Kishor Pathare may be 74 years old, but the temple designer at Manav Mandir Temple in Melbourne gets downright giddy when talking about the Ganesh festival.
Ganesh Chaturthi — one of the India’s biggest Hindu festivals — celebrates the elephant-headed god Ganesha.
Pathare explained why: “Before performing on the stage, we worship him. Before we go to school, we worship God. Before we do anything. It’s because we believe he will take all our obstacles away.”
The Ganesh Chaturthi Utsav is a 10-day celebration. On Sunday, Brevard’s Hindu temple will culminate the festivities with a Ganesh Visarjan, or a Ganesh birthday celebration.
As an American Indian, we try to keep our tradition alive for the future generation,” Pathare said. “This is happening everywhere — Canada, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand … I want to share that with other religion groups.”
Features include food, dancing and chanting. The dancers will wear traditional Indian costumes, with the girls wearing saris and Indian jewelry, and the men wearing traditional turbans. The food will be purely vegetarian — no meat and no alcohol on site, Pathare explained.
“It is a festival, of course there will be food!” he said of the Mahaprasad, or dinner. “All Indian food: curry, chapati (flatbread), rice, dal (think lentils or beans), boondi ladoo (sweet balls dessert). We love our food in this culture.”
He expects 400 people to attend the “feel good” festival.
There’s so much celebration going on, the event will practically take “all the obstacles away from you,” Pathare said, noting Ganesh represents knowledge and if you worship him, you’ll be a wise person, too.
The Ganesh festival also gives festivalgoers a chance to check out the Manav Mandir Temple, which opened in 2014. Pathare said a lot of Americans attend the temple to worship, do yoga or meditate. This is the first festival in the temple on a grand scale, but, he noted, “every year we (would) do something privately at home because we didn’t have a place like this before.”
Pathare estimated the last celebration open to the public took place almost 15 years ago in Melbourne or Indialantic.
“Now that we have a temple, we want to create these big festivals,” he said.
Here’s a schedule of what to expect:
5 p.m.: kids cultural program
6 p.m.: Atharvashirsha Path, where festivalgoers will chant mantras
6:30 p.m.: Mahamangala arti, or offering and chanting of gospel songs
7 p.m.: Ganesh Visarjan procession — from the temple to the lake on site for a Hindu tradition, which involves a small Ganesh statue being immersed in the lake.
According to Pathare, these are some of the gods — there are 17 deities at the temple, each representing something — to observe:
Rama Darbar: god of love and respect (loving the family)
Radha Krishna: god of love between the husband and wife
Lakshmi: goddess of wealth
Durga: goddess of power
Contact Sangalang at 321-242-3630
or jsangalang@floridatoday.com.
Twitter: @byjensangalang
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The details
What: Ganesh Chaturthi Utsav (Ganesh birthday celebration)
When: 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday
Where: Manav Mandir Temple, 7500 Waelti Drive, Melbourne
Cost: Free
Info: Call Prashant Chopde at 321-704-0455 or 321-426-0668 or visit mmbrevard.org.