Ganesh Chaturthi celebrated in Gulf with zeal

Hindu Temples in Jebel Ali and Karama mark the ten-day rituals besides some devotees in their homes.

Dubai: The festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is being celebrated by the Telugu expatriate community on Saturday across the Gulf region with great devotion.

Also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi or Ganesh Utsav, devotees place clay idols of Lord Ganesha at their homes and worship them. However, unlike in India, most devotees here immerse idols of Ganesha within three days.“I have followed all rituals in a day with Ganesha Murthi Sthapana and Visarjana,” said Bharati Reddy, who hails from Siddipet district and has been a long-term resident in the UAE. She added that most families in Dubai and Sharjah were going for short span immersions owing to their working conditions.

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Hindu Temples in Jebel Ali and Karama mark the ten-day rituals besides some devotees in their homes.

Scores of Indian expatriates flocked to markets in Dubai to purchase Ganesh idols and puja materials. The demand for Lord Ganesha idols surged, creating a vibrant market scene in Indian ethnic concentrated neighbourhood localities of the city.

“This is the first time in my life that I have seen such huge crowds in queues to purchase Ganesha,” said B. Vivekanand, a native of Hyderabad and long-term resident of Dubai. “We are excited to visit Ajman’s Maitri Farms Ganesha for puja”, said Jyoti, a housewife in Dubai and native of Hyderabad.

In Saudi Arabia, many individuals celebrated the festival in Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah. “We have been celebrating the festival in a spiritual manner for many years at our home”, said L. Prashanth, native of Peddapalli and resident in Riyadh.“We respect the law of land, we celebrate its zeal along with friends within privacy”, said Malleshan, president of Telugu community organization, SATA.