Ganesh Chaturthi 2008, Glen-Park, Mauritius - A Series in Pictures

I feel that bloggers who are serious about this culture seem to blog at least everyday.
Am I not serious? Well not as much to blogging as I mainly intended to use this blog as a personal site type thing but that's probably not a feasible option. Instead I should really turn it into a blog that is a bit more diversified and have at least one post everyday...Starting today.

First off I am going to put up a couple of pictures.
These are from my last visit to Mauritius where I took part in the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival. This post is dedicated to Hans who was very adversed to getting his picture taken, that's him below (gotcha):

Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the prominent festivals for the Mauritian Marathi. I had not taken part in the festival since 1998 and when I visited Mauritius in 2008, I mad sure I would be there for the festival. I am not going to bore anybody with ramblings about the significance, meaning and other religious dogma around the festival. It's about time I came clean and admit I am very inclined towards atheism. However I believe faith is a necessity and if faith is religion and tradition, so be it. I will follow on the basis that I believe in many traditional values. For me traditions bring the family and the community together and that is something very important to me.

The start of the festival. The above picture shows the Murti covered before the beginning of the prayers. Also we have Akheelesh, Sandeep and Vidisha before the ceremony.
Various prayers and rites performed. Here the Murthi is being draped.

The occasion also incorporated the inauguration of the Mandir's Hall which included a programme of dance and song,
below we have the entrance and welcome by two beautiful ladies:
Sorry I think I only have videos of the programme.
And here we have me wearing what we call a "langouti". Thanks again to Ravi for lending me one. This is traditional dress and I wore it on the day we went for "Kouler" (Translation, Mauritian Creole :Sink / Immersion) or the day when the Murthi is immersed.
This day also involves a procession with singing and dancing in the streets on the way to the river for the immersion.
A big crowd always gathers at the river sometimes hours before to get a good spot to watch the ceremony. We also usually have members of the community from different religious backgrounds attending. The area by the river is always prepared and cleaned for this ceremony although it is allowed to remain wild for the rest of the year.
Further prayers are carried out at the river bank.

And we would then have the immersion with resonant sounds of Ganpati Papa , Moriya:

Of course the festival is not complete without "Jakri". Dancing for all but usually in gender groups (because the girls dance so much better and don't want to be held back by the guys):
I had a wonderful time at Ganesh Chaturthi and I'm glad I participated.

Now I end this post on a less positive note. I feel that the occasion was slightly marred by the fact that the Glen-Park Marathi Community is served by two Mandirs, the MCC Bhawani Mandir and Vigneshwar Mandir. These are offshoots from the original mandir and as such splits the community and even family members which are affiliated to different mandirs. It is not a wide gulf yet and as far as I can see there is no bitterness on the whole. However the divide poses a bad influence on the younger members which view the mandirs as clubs and compete against each other, even at religious festivals! Bhawani has a mandir in a street, Vigneshwar is just a hundred meters away in the same street. The Mayor, Ministers and various others when attending festivals through making speeches at the mandirs always include the hope that one day these two mandirs will be one. I think that if it does not happen this generation, it never will. This is quite sad as everybody are friends in some way. Disagreements over, as far as I can see, trivial matters or even personal matters or even managerial ones should not affect the community, the children or even the faith. You still need to work together as a whole rather than saying no I want to do it my way, who's gonna join my club? Isn't one big club better and aren't the views of religion universal?

All I can say is:
"Dan en ti moris coumsa, dan en ti glen park coumsa, dan en sel chemin kave ena de mandir pour en sel religion, en sel famil, ki pe faire division dan en comunaute?"
"In this small Mauritius, in this small glen-park, in one street (why is there) should there be two mandirs for one religion, one family which is causing a divide in the community?"

What divide you say? A growing divide! You are turning your mandirs into personal clubs which are in several ways competing against each other. This carries over to your children affecting their views. You have outings for your club but how about their friends which are in the other club. They are not invited. Then youngsters as is normal would be bragging to their friends. The other children would now plead for an outing which is one better and so forth. You have religious festivals: my cultural programme is going to be better than yours, we are going to have this and that important personage attending ours. And many other examples which I picked up on, however subtle they may seem to some, they were screaming out to me. This was not how I remember things when I was younger although I remember the two different mandirs I used to go with my uncle and aunty to one and with my mami and papi to the other. This divide had not seemed so bad to me at the time. But now I feel these thoughts of "my club is better than yours" have passed on most keenly to the younger members. The divide grows further.

I am speaking relatively from an outsider's point of view, but then you don't even listen to the local people, what chance do I have?