Ganesh Chaturthi 2028: Date, Puja Muhurat & Significance

Madhyahna Puja: 11:06 AM to 1:41 PM (New Delhi).

These times are worked out from local sunrise and sunset, so they shift by city. Choose your city for your own times.

Shukla Chaturthi runs 23 Aug, 05:10 → 24 Aug, 01:55.

Ganesha is Vighnaharta, the one who clears obstacles, and the first deity honoured in any worship, journey or new venture. His birth-day is therefore kept both as a private vrat and as one of India's largest public festivals.

The rite is prana-pratishtha: a clay murti is installed with mantra, life is invoked into it, and it is served for the chosen span with sixteen upacharas, durva grass, red hibiscus and modaks. On the final day it is taken in procession and immersed (visarjan) with the cry 'Ganpati Bappa Morya, pudhchya varshi lavkar ya': come again soon next year.

A distinctive rule attaches to the day: one should not look at the Moon on Ganesh Chaturthi. A glance is said to bring mithya-dosha, a false accusation: the curse Ganesha laid on the Moon for laughing at him, and the reason Krishna was falsely blamed for stealing the Syamantaka jewel.

The same Chaturthi is honoured every month as Sankashti (Krishna paksha) and Vinayaki (Shukla paksha) Chaturthi; the Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi is the birth-day and the greatest of them.

Ganesha worship is attested from the Gupta period; the Puranas that give his birth-story reached their form in the first millennium CE, and the Ganapatya sect treated him as the supreme deity. Home worship on the Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi is old across the Deccan and the West.

Public, communal celebration grew under the Maratha state (the Peshwas kept a grand Ganesh utsav at Pune), but the modern sarvajanik (public-subscription) Ganeshotsav was shaped by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Pune in 1893, who turned the pandal, the procession and the ten days of lectures and music into a means of lawful mass assembly under colonial rule.

From Maharashtra the public form spread to Goa, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana and the Tamil country in the 20th century. Large idols and the scale of immersion have since raised water-quality concerns, and clay idols, natural colours and home or tank immersion are now widely encouraged.

• Ganesha Purana and Mudgala Purana: the Ganapatya canon
• Peshwa-era records of the Pune Ganeshotsav, 18th c.
• Kesari (Tilak's newspaper), Pune, 1893: the sarvajanik utsav

1. The image is installed in the Madhyahna period after a bath and the drawing of a rangoli; prana-pratishtha and shodashopachara puja follow, with durva (21 blades), red hibiscus, sindoor, and a naivedya of modaks and ladoos.
2. The Ganapati Atharvashirsha, the Sankatanashana Ganesha Stotra and the 108 names are recited; an aarti ('Sukhkarta Dukhharta') is offered morning and evening for as long as the murti is kept.
3. The moon is deliberately not looked at through the day; if seen by accident, the Syamantaka verse ('Simhah prasenam avadhit…') is recited to remove the dosha.
4. On the 1½, 3rd, 5th, 7th or 10th day the murti is carried in procession with drums and colour and immersed in a river, tank or the sea; a handful of the visarjan water or clay is often brought home.

Phala: Removal of obstacles and the success of undertakings; by the Sankashti mahatmya, relief from sankat (crisis) and the fulfilment of a sincere sankalpa.

Parvati, wishing to bathe undisturbed, formed a boy from the turmeric-and-unguent paste of her own body, breathed life into him, and set him to guard the door. When Shiva returned and the boy, not knowing him, barred the way, Shiva in anger struck off his head.

Parvati's grief was terrible, and she threatened to unmake creation. To console her, Shiva sent his ganas north with orders to bring the head of the first creature they met sleeping facing north; they returned with an elephant's head, which Shiva fixed to the boy and revived. He named him Ganapati, lord of the ganas, and gave him the boon that no worship anywhere would succeed unless Ganesha were honoured first.

Another day, having eaten his fill of modaks, Ganesha was riding his mouse when it stumbled at the sight of a snake and he fell, his belly bursting. He tied the snake around his waist and rose, and the Moon, watching, laughed. Ganesha cursed him: whoever looks on the Moon this day will be falsely accused. The gods begged mercy; he softened it so the curse would bind only on the Bhadrapada Chaturthi, and could be lifted by hearing the Syamantaka story.

Source: Shiva Purana, Rudrasamhita (Kumara Khanda); Skanda Purana; Ganesha Purana; Brahmavaivarta Purana (variant with Shani's gaze)

1. Sankalpa and bath. Bathe in the morning, wear clean clothes, and take the vow to keep the Ganesh Chaturthi vrat for the removal of obstacles; name the tithi, paksha and month, and the span for which the murti will be kept.
2. Sthapana at Madhyahna. Draw a rangoli, place a clay Ganesha on a wooden seat over rice or red cloth, and do prana-pratishtha with mantra during the midday muhurat.
3. Shodashopachara puja. Offer the sixteen upacharas with 21 blades of durva, red hibiscus, sindoor, sandal, a ghee lamp, and a naivedya of modaks; recite the Ganapati Atharvashirsha and the Sankatanashana Ganesha Stotra.
4. Avoid the Moon; keep aarti. Do not look at the Moon through the day. Offer the 'Sukhkarta Dukhharta' aarti morning and evening for as long as the murti is kept, and keep a phalahar or single-meal fast on the Chaturthi itself.
5. Katha and daan. Hear the Ganesh Chaturthi and Syamantaka kathas; give food, modaks or dakshina to a Brahmin or to those in need.
6. Visarjan. On the chosen day carry the murti in procession and immerse it in flowing water with the prayer to return next year; bring back a little of the water or clay for the home.

• A clay (shadu / natural) Ganesha murti and a wooden seat with red cloth
• Durva grass (21 blades), red hibiscus and other flowers, bilva and 21 kinds of patri where kept
• Sindoor, sandal paste, akshata, haldi-kumkum, janeu
• Ghee lamp, incense, camphor, a bell, panchamrit and Ganga jal
• Modaks (21) and ladoos for the naivedya; fruit and coconut
• The Ganapati Atharvashirsha and the Ganesh Chaturthi Vrat Katha

• Keep a phalahar or single-meal fast on the Chaturthi until the puja.
• Do not look at the Moon on this day; recite the Syamantaka verse if it is seen.
• Truthful, gentle speech; no anger; brahmacharya for the day.
• Keep the murti and the place of worship undisturbed and clean for the whole span it is kept.
• Immerse a clay, naturally coloured idol; prefer a home tank or a designated place over a living river where possible.

Who should not keep this fast: The ill, the very young and old, pregnant and nursing women, and anyone for whom fasting is unsafe should keep a light phalahar or a symbolic fast and focus on the puja and katha. The vrat asks for devotion, not for harm.

• Maharashtra. The ten-day Ganeshotsav: household Ganpatis, giant public mandals (Lalbaugcha Raja, Dagdusheth), and the Anant Chaturdashi immersion processions; ukdiche modak steamed in rice flour. →
• Goa (Konkani). Chavath: a matoli canopy of local leaves, fruit and vegetables hung above the murti; fovnnem and nevri; many households keep patri (leaf) Ganpatis for a day and a half.
• Karnataka. Gowri-Ganesha: Gauri (Parvati) is installed the day before and Ganesha comes to take his mother home; kadubu and modaka.
• Andhra Pradesh, Telangana. Vinayaka Chavithi: worship with 21 kinds of leaves (patri), undrallu and kudumulu; Khairatabad's very large idol.
• Tamil Nadu. Vinayaka Chaturthi / Pillaiyar Chaturthi: kozhukattai (modak) and sundal offered; immersion is modest and often at home.

• Modak — Ganesha's favourite: steamed ukdiche modak of rice flour with jaggery-coconut filling, and the fried khoya modak; 21 are often offered.
• Motichoor / besan ladoo — Round sweets offered in the naivedya and shared as prasad.
• Undrallu, kozhukattai, kadubu, puran poli, karanji — Regional steamed and stuffed sweets made for the days the Ganpati is kept.

Ganesh Chaturthi is kept on the day when Chaturthi of Bhadrapada Shukla paksha prevails at Madhyahna (midday). That day is Wednesday, 23 August 2028, and the Madhyahna Puja muhurat is from 11:06 AM to 1:41 PM. Chaturthi holds at midday only on this day.

at Madhyahna (midday)

Ganesh Chaturthi is the Shukla Chaturthi of Bhadrapada: the fourth tithi of the waxing fortnight, when the Moon is 36°–48° ahead of the Sun in ecliptic longitude (sidereal, Lahiri). The puja is anchored to the Madhyahna kaal, the middle fifth of the day between sunrise and sunset, because tradition places Ganesha's birth at midday; this is why the observed day is the one whose midday the Chaturthi tithi covers, not a sunrise reckoning. The Moon-sighting prohibition runs from roughly the third to the fifth tithi. The Sun stands in sidereal Simha or early Kanya. The Gregorian date drifts about 11 days earlier each year and jumps back ~19 days in an adhika-month year.

A lunar date: Chaturthi of the bright half of Bhadrapada drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.