Talk:Ganesh Chaturthi

Mythology
Removed this section. Did not seem to have relevance to the festival per say. May be relevant to the ganesha article. Also no references provided.

""Mythology

The origin of the festival lies in the Holy Hindu scriptures which tell the story of Lord Ganpati . Lord Ganesha (or Ganapati) (the names mean "Lord [isha] or [pati] of Shiva's hosts [gana]") was created by Goddess Parvati, consort of Lord Shiva.

According to the legend, Lord Shiva, the Hindu God of resolution, was away at a war. His wife Parvati, wanted to bathe. Having no one to guard the door to her house, she conceived of the idea of creating a son who could guard her. Parvati created Ganesha out of the sandalwood paste that she used for her bath and breathed life into the figure. She then set him to stand guard at her door and instructed him not to let anyone enter.

In the meantime, Lord Shiva returned from the battle, but as Ganesha did not know him Ganesha stopped Shiva from entering Parvati's chamber. Shiva, enraged by Ganesh’s impudence, drew his trident and cut off Ganesha's head. Parvati emerged to find Ganesha decapitated and flew into a rage. She took on the form of the Goddess Kali and threatened destruction of the three worlds, heaven, earth and the subterranean.

Parvati was in a dangerous mood and, seeing her in this mood, the other gods were afraid. Shiva, in an attempt to pacify Parvati, sent his ganas, or hordes, to find a child whose mother is facing away from the child in negligence, to cut off the child's head and return quickly with it. The first living thing they came across was an elephant facing north, the auspicious direction associated with wisdom, so they returned with the head of the elephant. Shiva placed it on the headless body of Parvati's son and breathed life into him. Parvati was overjoyed and embraced her son, the elephant-headed boy whom Shiva named Ganesha, the lord of his ganas. Parvati was still upset, however, so Lord Shiva announced that everyone who worships Ganesha before any other form of God is favoured. This is why Ganesh is worshipped first at all Hindu occasions and festivals.""

Was the immersion always a part of Ganesh Chaturthi?
Lokmanya Tilak started the submerging act, but why?because in views of hindu's idol Pooja is done only in temples and when it is done outside the temples it has to be submerged as it does not undergoes "pranaprathistha" which means breathing a life in idols