Meet the family who celebrates Ganesh Chathurti for an entire year!

For generations now, the Mahale family in Mala, Panaji has been celebrating Ganesh Chathurti for almost a year. “Coming from a purohit (priest) family, my grandfather Raghuvir Ramkrishna Mahale Purohit was a well known priest. He was highly knowledgeable in vedas and shastras. He used to perform pujas for many brahmin yajmans in Panaji as well as other parts of the state,” informs Raghuvir Mahale from Mala. In their ancestral home in Mala, they have been performing Ganesh Chaturthi since ages. “We are amongst the few who perform puja and keep the Ganesh idol for a year in the home and this tradition has been going on since generations.” Lord Ganesh is worshipped at the start of every good occasion to avoid any difficulty and complete the task with fulfilment. “We have been practising the tradition of keeping the idol for a year in our home. This year we will bring a new idol and worship it for one and a half days and keep the idol in that place and the last year idol will be immersed joyfully in the well in our house,” he adds. Lord Ganesha is the lord of wisdom, prosperity and avoids troubles, it is believed that the Mahale family should worship the idol at home for a year and it will bring knowledge, prosperity and happiness. The tradition has been continued since then. The idol is around 12-14 inches and the model and height remains constant“If we worship the new idol for one and a half days then on the Panchami (2nd day) we keep the idol on its place and immerse the last year's idol in the well. My cousin and a priest, Viren Mahale gets in the well and dips the idol three times in well water and lets the idol sink. The well is around 15 ft deep.”What happens if the idol is damaged around the year? Well, it has to be immersed immediately. Narrating an incident, Raghuvir tells us, “when I was around 8-years-old I was playing with a stick which slipped off my hand and hit the idol. The hand of the idol was damaged slightly. Hence we had to immerse the idol on the same day.”The Mahale family has Prasad always. “We have Prasad for the shaligrams daily such as patoli, khatkhate, mangane, puri, bhaji, rice, varan. On the day of chaturthi we make panchkat, nevryo, laddo, modak, patoli, and even kheer.