Shirish Paranjape
Christchurch, September 18, 2022
The residents of Christchurch participated in a multitude of celebrations to mark the Ganeshotsav Festival this year.
It started with the public Ganesh Chaturthi Aarti and Prasad dinner organised by Hitesh and Seema Sharma of Maia Foods. This was the seventh year that they were organising the Ganesh Chaturthi event.
Auspicious Chhappan Bhog
Several other families including Veena and Sudhir Joshi, Suruchi and Abhay Vengurlekar, and Sonal and Avi Gangurde held Ganeshotsav events at their homes.
Sonal and Avi invited about six guests daily over many days, and offered different items as the Prasad, with the total number of items being 56, to reflect ‘Chhappan Bhog.’
At many events, children took the centre stage, sang prayers, and recited shlokas.
Apli Manse, the Christchurch Marathi Group organised the grand finale on the tenth day of Anant Chaturdashi. The event included cultural programmes, Maha Aarti and Takeaway Prasad. Preeti and Sameer Gaikwad and Ketaki Tamhankar presented a skit in Marathi, the first of its kind in Christchurch.
Donation to Cancer Society
It was a wonderful period of ten days, with lots of social connections, colourful costumes and good vegetarian food during the recently concluded Ganeshotsav period at Christchurch.
Shirish Paranjape is Indian Newslink Correspondent in Christchurch. As done in the past, he and his wife Manik celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi in their home. In view of the increased number of guests, prayers were held over two days, with about 40 guests each day. They were invited to donate to the Cancer Society. Shirish and Manik matched the amount collected.
