Hello there all you loyal A Tiny City citizens! Today we’ve got a treat straight from the elephants trunk! Our friend in India, Radhika Seth, is celebrating with her fellow citizens and we’ve got the pics to prove it.

According to Mrs. Seth, it is the beginning of “Ganpati.” To celebrate the birthday of Ganesh, they get an idol of him and treat him like a king for 1,5,7, or 11 days, depending on how long you want to keep him in your home. After that, you leave him in a lake, the sea, or a pond.

During this time friends and family are invited over to the house to enjoy the celebration, eating a bunch of food while they do it. But only vegetarian! And cooked without onions or garlic, as part of the beliefs of Vaishnavism dictate garlic and onions as impure foods.

The leaving of the idol is called Visarjan. It is a sad time because “it’s like bringing home a baby and then leaving him out in the cold.” Sad! However, the last day, when the gigantic idols (20-30ft tall) are immersed in water, that is a big event with thousands of people standing along the beach watching the dunking.

And you may ask yourself — what happens to all those idols?

Well, some of them sit there underwater. But a lot of them dissolve. Why? Because of recent activist movement(s) to create an environmentally safe process for Ganesha’s birthday process:

Several non governmental and governmental bodies have been addressing this issue. Amongst the solutions proposed by various groups some are as follows:

Return to the traditional use of natural clay icons and immerse the icon in a bucket of water at home.

Use of a permanent icon made of stone and brass, used every year and a symbolic immersion only.

Recycling of plaster icons to repaint them and use them again the following year.

Ban on the immersion of plaster icons into lakes, rivers and the sea.

Creative use of other biodegradable materials such as paper mache to create Ganesh icons.

Encouraging people to immerse the icons in tanks of water rather than in natural water bodies.

To handle religious sentiments sensitively, some temples and spiritual groups have also taken up the cause.

I like the paper mache idea myself. Also there are a bunch of natural paints that can be used to decorate!

Here are the photos Radhika took for the event!