Hindu Celebration Begins Today
Thousands of Hindus are expected in Huntington Beach today for a festival and parade to celebrate the god Ganesh, known as the remover of obstacles. The festival, called Ganesh Chaturthi, falls on Monday but is celebrated on the weekend.
The local chapter of Maharashtra Mandal, an organization of more than 4,000 Marathi-speaking people in Southern California, will hold a festival in honor of the half-human, half-elephant Hindu god.
“Ganesh is one of the most important deities of Hinduism,” said Archana Dongre, event organizer and a freelance writer for Hinduism Today magazine. “This deity is worshiped before all the other gods . . . because Ganesh has the power to carry any project to fruition and is considered the reservoir of all knowledge and all arts.”
The event will begin at 1:30 p.m. at Huntington Beach High School with a cultural program and worship ritual. At 5 p.m., celebrants will proceed to the ocean to immerse a small clay idol of the Ganesh deity in the surf at lifeguard station No. 21.
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