The Ganesh Utsav in Mumbai is the biggest spectacle that draws lakhs of devotees from across the city and other places of the country. The slogans of Ganapati Bappa Morya echos on the streets especially during visarjan.
Now when coronavirus has created havoc in the country with Mumbai as the main hub, this time Ganesh Utsav celebrations will be at back foot. Many prominent Ganeshotsav mandals in the city have decided to postpone the celebrations to February 2021. The celebrations will have to be quieter than other years, and the idols must be less than 3 ft in height.
According to a Mumbai Mirror report, the Goud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) community and 21 Ganesh mandals of Khetwadi have decided against celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi this year. Instead, they’ve collectively decided to celebrate it on Maghi Ganesh Chaturthi, i.e. Lord Ganesha’s birthday, which falls on February 15, 2021.
Mumbai Ganesh Utsav draws a huge crowd and hence it won’t be possible to manage them. Hence they decided to postpone celebrations to Feb 2021.
Also due to Covid-19 most of the workers migrated to their native place. This badly affected the production of Ganesh idols.
Still, the announcement yet to come from Lalbaugcha Raja Mandal about their plan on celebrating the festival.
It is possible that some mandals will go with the celebration but they will have to follow the rules very strictly. Hence Some of the recommendations include:
– keeping the height of the idols to less than 3 ft.
– no grand visarjans will be allowed and
– only 4 people would be allowed to immerse the idol.
The celebration of this festival in the month of August would not be a great idea since social distancing will be the biggest challenge.
