Pune Welcomes Ganeshotsav With Muted Celebrations in COVID19 Pandemic

Shikha Chaurasia
Pune, August 23, 2020: Ganeshotsav is the biggest religious festival in Pune. It is often celebrated with colourful decorations, sounds of Dhol-Tasha and people gathering for darshan of various Ganesh idols in pandals.

However this time, due to Coronavirus disease (COVID19) pandemic, Punekars are celebrating Ganeshotsav differently. There are no processions with Dhol-Tasha due to COVID-19 regulations. People were urged not to come out and gather in large numbers.

Despite lesser people, the festival still has its charm. People are celebrating it with the same enthusiasm as before. The city’s most famous mandals, including the five ‘Manache Ganpati’, welcomed the installation of the idol with a lesser number of workers.

Though there were no processions, there was no compromise with the rituals. The rituals were carried out with the same traditional fervour.

The city’s pride and the most famous Ganpati temple Dagdusheth Halwai is beautifully decorated with flowers. Devotees did not turn in huge numbers, but several of them offered their prayers from outside.

Police personnel were deployed to avoid crowding of people and traffic jams. All COVID-19 regulations were kept in mind. People followed social distancing, places were sanitized repeatedly to avoid the spread of COVID-19 infection.

Citizens decorated their homes and installed Ganpati idols to celebrate Ganeshotsav from home.