After 3 weeks of being in MUWCI, we had this festival called Ganesh Chaturthi. It is a festival celebrated in honor of the elephant-headed god, Ganesha. It involves the Hindu’s praying to Ganesha in temporary shrines. In MUWCI, we all gathered at the parking lot and the school staff had built a temporary shrine with the God Ganesha in the middle. People would come up to the statue and pray to it.
After that, we all gathered in the parking lot and a truck full of pink and purple powder came to the campus. Everyone began throwing colored powder (pink and purple) at each other and dancing with the staff on campus. By the end of it, everyone was literally covered in powder from head to toe. We had loads of fun!
After this, we walked down to the river and joined the locals with their celebrations. They had many different statues of the God that they carried down to the river. At the river, there was intense singing and dancing before submerging to statues into the river. They locals ensured that we were involved in the celebrations by inviting some of us down to the river to submerge the statues and dance with them. Although I was very sore after walking down to the river, I had an amazing experience!
More photos of the event can be found in the photo gallery section!
