Ganesh Chaturthi, which started on August 22, was celebrated with much devotion and fervour, but mostly at home, as Auckland has been at Alert Level 3 and the rest of the country at Alert Level 2 due to COVID-19. But the virus couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of devotees of Lord Ganesha.

Celebrations in Christchurch

“We generally have 700-800 people visit our one-day Ganesh Utsav event in Christchurch, but this year we had to let people in batches of 100 as we had to follow protocols of mass gatherings,” said Sandeep Khanna, one of the organisers of Mumbai Memories Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Christchurch.

Mumbai Memories has been organizing Ganesh Chaturthi for the last six years. But unlike past years, the committee couldn’t advertise the event as they didn’t want to have a larger crowd than allowed at Alert Level 2.

“We live-streamed the morning and evening aartis and about 60-70 people witnessed the rituals virtually,” said Hitesh Sharma who has been helping Khanna organize the community Ganesh Chaturthi in Christchurch. The organizing committee of 20 people was as motivated as every year, taking initiatives of various tasks, preparing meals for guests being the primary one.

Meanwhile, Shirish Paranjape and Manik Paranjape in Christchurch had an unlikely celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi this year.

Normally, the Paranjapes have about 60-70 people together on the one-day celebration of Ganpati. This year though, to maintain the two metres distance rule between people, they had 8-10 people at a time over five days.

Zoom aartis with friends and family was a solution to feel connected in these uncertain times. For the last two years, the couple has discouraged visitors from bringing sweets and fruits for Ganesha. Instead, they have encouraged people to contribute money for the Cancer Society with a contribution box placed in the event area. But this year as they weren’t sure if people would visit, Shirish and Manik thought of skipping the collection.

Celebrations in Auckland

The story in Auckland was completely different as the city has been at Alert Level 3 and the restrictions are more than in the rest of New Zealand.

Vinayak Phondge and family have been doing Ganesh Utsav at home since 2007 in Auckland. They have about 50-60 people visit them over one and a half days. This year the celebration was done amidst family. “If we have to look at positives, I would say it gave us a lot of time for devotion as a family together as we weren’t attending to people throughout the day,” mentioned Phondge.

Thanks to technology, Vinayak could bring his people together to attend aarti through video calling. He has been getting the idol from Mumbai, India, but this year he bought home an idol from an Indian shop in Auckland. Vinayak said visarjan didn’t feel the same with no friends and relatives around.

– by Shivangi Bose, an experienced media professional and writer, who recently moved to Auckland, and has a special interest in script-writing for brand videos.