1000 Plus Devotees Celebrate Joyful Ganesh Chaturthi

More than 1000 Hindu devotees celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi with great enthusiasm and happiness yesterday in Suva.

Ganesh Chaturthi, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi is an annual Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Ganesha.

The 10-day festival starts on the fourth day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month Bhadrapada. This falls in the month of August or September of the Gregorian calendar.

The Fiji Sevashram Sangha leader Swami Sanyuktanand said that Hindu devotees organised the function for everyone in Fiji despite their religion. Mr Sanyuktanand said that they have been celebrating Ganesh Utsav for 19 years now and its popularity was slowly growing in the country.

“This festival promotes unity and teaches love and peace among people.

“There are various religious bodies in Fiji like South Indian, North Indian, but despite that we can come together as one because at the end of the day we belong to the Hindu faith.”

More than 1000 children participated in the games and competitions while everyone got a jute bag, especially from India. The festival was celebrated with sweets and food for everyone. Devotee, Shawnal Kumar, said that he had been taking part every year and the annual event gave him a chance to meet new people. “We had so much fun during the festivity because there was so many games for us to play with other youths,” Mr Kumar said.

“It is a good exercise also because we walked from town to Nasese.” He further added that the event kept their Indian culture alive and it was something everyone looked forward to.

Another participant, Goru Arvind said he usually took day off from work to attend this prestigious celebration.

“The festival gets bigger every year, which shows great devotion from people,” he said.