MORE than 2,500 people attended the recent Swindon Ganesh Utsav festival, organised by Swindon Hindu Temple.

The Hindu festival celebrated the elephant-headed god Ganesh’s birthday. Ganesha is the God of wisdom and is worshipped as an obstacle remover. He is honoured at the start of every ritual and ceremonies as he’s considered the god of beginnings.

The festival is marked with installation of a Ganesh clay idol. while worshippers , pray and chant Vedic hymns and Hindu texts, such as the Ganapati Upanishad.

Offerings are then distributed, including Indian food delicacies and sweets such as modak.

After a procession with music and chanting.The festival ends with immersion of the god into water The clay is then used to plant a tree which signifies nature as a form of god.

The festival is celebrated each year in August or September in most parts of India and across the world.

Swindon’s community Ganesh Utsav started in 2016 after the launch of Swindon Hindu Temple And Cultural centre, a common place of worship which opened after a wait of 60 years.

The celebration of the first year of Swindon Ganesh Utsav in 2016 saw more than 1,500 people attending the event, taking part in many religious and cultural activities.

Swindon Ganesh Utsav 2017 was another majestic celebration, with the addition of an Indian food festival and cultural performances.

The event started with the installation of an eco-friendly god imported from India after the procession, with the fusion of Maharashtra Mandal London’s Dhol Beats UK and Swindon Temple Dhol team.

Hundreds of people – boys, girls, men, women of all ages and of different faith backgrounds – danced and celebrated to welcome the god Ganesh.

Day two of the festival was even more colourful, with an Indian food festival in the morning and a cultural event in the evening.

The food festival, the first of its kind in the county, was attended by about1,000 people, and there were more than 25 Indian food delicacies from all the corners of India, such as Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Bihar, New Delhi, Orissa, West Bengal and Rajasthan.

The food festival also had mehendi and face painting stalls.

And the organisers said the atmosphere of the whole festival was wonderful, with a number of rocking Bollywood and Marathi songs included.