Ganapati in Kadod

August has been a month of many festivals here in Kadod. We have celebrated Aluna, Krishna Janamashtami, and most recently, Ganapati. This festival celebrates Lord Ganesh through the decoration of elaborate statues that are placed throughout the village and worshipped for about a week and a half. Each night of the festival a few of our students came to the house to invite us to the temple for the evening puja. This typically consisted of me and Claire standing awkwardly by the Ganesh statue, occasionally participating in the ceremony by thowing flowers at the feet of the statue or even waving the offering candles along with one of the donors of the statue. The highlight of most of these evenings came in the conversations we had afterwards with many community members. People were all eager to ask us questions about our life here in India, but unfortunately most of them did not speak English, and our Hindi is still not good enough to carry on a casual conversation. Luckily, our students were excited to practice their English and serve as our translators for the evening. It was great to hear how far they've come in just three weeks of conversational English!

After 10 days of evening offerings to Lord Ganesh, all of the villages around Kadod brought their beautiful statues through the town to throw in the river. This culminated in a big procession full of music, dancing, and gulal (pink powder). Here are some photos from the 5 hour long parade.

The tailor's son with his grandparents watching the parade begin.

The calm before the storm.

A final puja before the statue is taken out of its shrine.

Kids got really into the gulal war that happened throughout the day.

Some girls put on protective face masks before dancing in the parade. This kept them from inhaling too much of the powder and car exhaust in the long procession of trucks and tractors.

Women gave prasad from their Ganesh floats.

Whistles were a favorite instrument of all our students watching the procession.

Here's one of the crazier groups forming a human pyramid while their friends danced around them.

Our friend Darshanbhai was very into the holiday.


Many of my students stopped dancing briefly to pose for a picture (and throw pink powder their teacher).

Needless to say, I was fully pink by the end of the day. My students were particularly excited to cover their American teacher in gulal. All in all, it was a really fun day. Festivals like this one have been a great way to feel a part of the Kadod community and get to know a few more people in this lovely village.