Planning an auspicious beginning in your life or any new business?
This 13th September bring Lord Ganesha home!
It is believed, if you place Lord Ganesha in the right place, he takes away all your problems in life. Instead as a blessing, he gives you good luck, wisdom and prosperity!
Learn the correct and auspicious pooja time, date, rules and right placement of Lord Ganesha.
Courtesy of: Vastu Dekho
Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations are held in every housing society annually in order to honour the birth of Lord Ganesh. This festival encompasses a variety of cultural events that have deep-rooted religious meanings, which bring people together and enhance their sense of oneness.
You can make arrangements to celebrate the festival in your housing society, in order to bring together all residents. This can take an immense amount of time and effort since celebrations for Ganesh Chaturthi are very elaborate and done on a grand scale. Ensure that you bring up the idea during a resident meeting so that you can get help from other residents and delegate duties effectively.
Most housing societies usually arrange idols of Lord Ganesh to be placed in the common area. This is usually the crux of the celebration. The idol can be placed in a central location so that it is easily accessible to all residents within the society. Be wary of the direction the idol is meant to face.
Instead of having scores of people from the housing society immersing idols all over the city, the housing society management can organize a local area where the residents can collectively gather, celebrate and finish off the festivities. The management can have a small artificial tank constructed within the compound to be used for this purpose.
Sweets are the main part of this festival. You can take some initiative and encourage all families to make sweets at home. You can do this during the resident meetings. This will not only help them save on money and resources but also ensures less wastage. Such sweets are healthier and also bring the housing society residents closer during the festival.
Most modern children aren’t completely aware of the significance of Ganesh Chaturthi or about the various rituals that are performed. The best way to create awareness is art. Put up plays or dances depicting the scenes that relate to the festival. Also, why not try screening a themed movie for your residents? You can even host competitions for storytelling, poetry recitation, drawing, or rangoli.
Festivals that are largely popular often damage the environment. Why not take the initiative to go green this Chaturthi? The first thing to do is to ensure your idol is made of clay instead of POP or plastic. Clay idols dissolve in water when immersed and do not affect marine life too heavily. Make sure your idols are also painted with non-toxic colours. The housing society management must strive to ensure that every family limits itself by having only one idol for immersion. Reduce the use of firecrackers and loudspeakers. These are some of the biggest causes of pollution during festivals. Lastly, remember to organise a clean-up drive at the end of the festivities. Proper disposal of the garbage, both biodegradable and recyclables, can go a long way in contributing to an environment-friendly festival.
Celebrating such an important festival on a common stage can be a fun experience for everyone, especially the children. Once you delegate all the necessary tasks to specific members through the housing society management, you can enjoy a splendid Ganesh Chaturthi with your family and the entire community.
Takes away Flipkart voucher worth Rs 1,000 by participating in the ApnaComplex Ganesh Chaturthi Contest.
Starting this week we ran an exciting Ganesh Chaturthi contest on our ApnaComplex Facebook page. It was an open contest for all. Participants had to tickle there brains, come up with an environmental friendly idea to celebrate this Ganesh Chaturthi and post the same on our facebook and twitter pages. Soumyadeep Sur has provided the most practical Eco-Friendly idea, which is not just interesting but worth considering by all. ApnaComplex is excited to reward Soumyadeep Sur with a Flipkart Gift Voucher worth Rs 1,000.
The contest started on August 25, 2014 and concluded on August 28, 2014 at 2pm. We got some encouraging ideas from across which definitely shows that our fans are concerned about environmental safety. We would like to share few interesting ideas with all, you never know you might implement the same in the future. So lets hit it —
Detailing the celebration process
Say no to colors and think of poor
Ganesha loves food
Art will speak it all
Eco-friendly water Ganesha
Why not Ganesha from the leaves
Summing up for an environment friendly Ganesh Chaturthi celebration
Ganesh – the Plant to worship
Some Sincere Prayers to conclude
It was indeed a very fruitful contest.
Did you miss this one, don’t worry we have our next one coming up right away. Share your Ganesh Celebration photos with us on our Facebook and the best photo can win exciting goodies from ApnaComplex.
ApnaComplex team wishes everyone a Very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi.
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People living in a housing society can follow a few pointers through which they can celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in a pleasant yet eco-friendly manner.
Idol immersion is a common scene during Ganesh Chaturthi, where the idol of Lord Ganesh is finally immersed into the sea or any other water body following the end of the festival. This adversely affects the marine life at sea. This effect is due to the fact that the Ganesh idols that people purchase are often made of Plaster of Paris.
This toxic substance, when dumped into the ocean is consumed by aquatic creatures, leading to their death. In order to completely avoid this problem, ensure that you buy an idol which is made of clay or mud as it does not harm the marine ecosystem.
You can do your bit and spread some awareness among the residents of your flat about the environmental advantages of using clay idols over plastic ones. Although it would not be realistic on your part to expect everyone to change their preferences immediately, all you need to do is start off the initial spark. You can talk to the apartment association regarding this.
Apart from the regular clay and mud models, environmental groups are coming up with various solutions to reduce the adverse effects that massive idol disposal causes. A community called Sadguru Shri Aniruddha Upasana Trust came up with the concept of biodegradable Ganeshs.
These idols are made from paper from the trust’s Ramnaam notebooks. The paper is packed in casts in order to mold the material and give it a definite shape. The idol is allowed to dry for a period of two days and then painted with non-toxic colors.
These idols are easy to make and cause no harmful effects towards the environment. You can urge your housing society neighbors to buy these eco-friendly alternatives. A housing society can also buy a single large idol of the lord for the entire locality in order to reduce the disposal of numerous idols in the sea.
In a housing society, the management can collectively make a decision to dig up a ditch and fill it with water so that idol immersion can be done in such a place, reducing the overall contamination. If an artificial ditch like this is created in every housing society, the levels of pollution will fall drastically and even traffic congestion on the roads can be avoided.
There are many small steps like these that members in a housing society can take in order to make their community a better place to live in.
Ensure that you bring up the idea during a resident meeting so that you can get help from all other residents in the housing society too.
While being an amazing spectacle to witness, Ganesh Chaturthi can be both environmentally degrading and very cost ineffective. The housing society management can take the initiative to implement some of the below tips while celebrating this festival.
Instead of having scores of people from the housing society immersing idols all over the city and in a variety of water bodies, the housing society management can organize a local area where the residents can collectively gather, celebrate and finish off the festivities in an environmentally friendly manner.
The management can dig a ditch and create a central temporary water body that can be used for this purpose.
Housing societies usually arrange for huge idols of Lord Ganesh, and this forms an extremely vital part of the celebration. The idol can be placed in a central location so that it is easily accessible to all residents within the society.
Clay idols score over plastic ones because they’re a lot more cost efficient. Clay dissolves in water and this material is more eco-friendly as remnants from the celebration don’t stay in the water for long enough to significantly damage the aquatic ecosystem.
The housing society management must also strive to ensure that every family limits itself by having only one idol for immersion.
You can take some initiative and encourage all families to make sweets at home. You can do this during the resident meetings. This will not only help them save on money and resources, but also ensures less wastage.
Such sweets are healthier and also bring the housing society residents closer during the festival. Sweets can be exchanged during the main puja that is conducted near the large idol.
Most modern children aren’t completely aware of the significance of Ganesh Chaturthi or about the various rituals that are performed. Through the management, you can hire knowledgeable speakers to talk about the festival or drama groups who can enact various mythological events related to the festival.
Celebrating such an important festival in a common stage can be a fun experience for everyone, especially the children. Once you delegate all the necessary tasks to specific members through the housing society management, you can enjoy a splendid Ganesh Chaturthi with your family and the entire community.
One of the major tasks involved in planning out this festival is selecting the perfect idol of Lord Ganesh. The residents in a housing society can select a huge idol in order to offer their prayers together as a community, other than the small ones they buy personally.
Here are some simple pointers which housing society residents must keep in mind while selecting an idol.
It isn’t an easy task to shop for idols just a day or two before Ganesh Chaturthi. Booking an idol before hand is extremely important. Most people tend to book their idols on the day of Janmashtami as a reminder or at least 10-15 days before the festival, so ensure that you book your idol way in advance. Did not book it yet? Never mind – its never too late for a good thing. Read the rest of the article and book the idol right away!
The housing society management must ensure that the idols that their residents buy are made up of biodegradable clay, which easily dissolves when immersed into the sea.
More often than not, Plaster of Paris and other toxic chemicals are used to make the idols, which can have adverse effects on the marine ecosystem. In order to maintain a green housing society, this rule must be enforced.
Ganesh idols are available in an array of sizes and this makes it difficult to choose the ideal one. Since the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations held at a housing society would normally cater to a large number of people, it would be practical to choose an idol which is approximately 10-15 feet high.
Smaller idols can be chosen for personal purposes in every home. The main idol should be properly transported into the housing society, though, without any damages.
This is an extremely important tip that the management should note while choosing a Ganesh idol. When a standing idol is installed in a particular place over a period of 10 days, there is a high chance that cracking may occur due to the heavy weight borne. For this reason, it’s more practical to choose a seated idol.
For environmental reasons, the housing society management should opt for and promote Ganesh idols that are not painted with toxic paints and dyes. Instead, natural coloring substances such as turmeric and vermillion can be used to give the idol some color.
The housing society management must remember to purchase decoration material for the idol in advance. In order to save money, the decorations can be purchased from a wholesaler. It is important to purchase the material only after buying the idol, as the size plays a vital role.
Ideally, the materials should be purchased a week before Ganesh Chaturthi. Plastic decorative items should be strictly avoided for use during the celebrations. Instead, cloth, paper and wood items can be used as alternatives in order to avoid environmental hazards during the immersion of the idol.
These are some simple yet vital pointers which housing society residents should keep in mind while selecting an idol for the vibrant festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. These tips will help the management ensure that all residents enjoy the festivities to the fullest, while setting an example of being environmentally conscious citizens.
