10 Images To Show Ganesh Chaturthi Preparations Are In Full Swing Across The Nation

Festivals in India are always celebrated with great devotion and a splendid cultural display, combined with great fanfare.

And with Ganesh Chaturthi around the corner, preparations for the festival are in full swing across the nation.

The 10-day long festival which is celebrated to honour Lord Ganesh begins with people bringing the Ganesh idols home or setting up pandals (large tents) and worshipping it for the entire duration.

What is remarkable about the idols is that although all of them depict Lord Ganesh, each one has its own unique aspects to it. In fact preparations to make the idols begin months and sometimes even years in advance.

Apart from the idols, the pandals are also colourfully decorated, cultural events are organised and people participate in them with keen interest.

Finally, after ten days of worshipping the lord and expressing one's devotion towards the festival, on the final day, devotees bid farewell to Lord Ganesh by way of immersing the idols in a river or sea.

Apparently, the final day happens to be one of the most amazing and enjoyable times of the festival. Idols are taken out in a colorful and musical procession and immersed traditionally in water. It is quite an elaborate affair, especially in the state of Maharashtra.

And although worshippers are sad at the end of 10th day that they have to bid farewell to the lord, but they do so in the hope that next year they would again be given the opportunity to worship him.

As the mood for the festival sets in, here's a look at how devotees and artists are preparing for the upcoming festival.

Artists paint idols of Lord Ganesh to be sold ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Jammu

An artist carrying idols God Ganesh in Jammu.

A Muslim woman walks past a row of Lord Ganesh idols, put on display to be sold ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Bengaluru.

A worker puts up plastic sheets to cover the idols in Bengaluru.

Devotees prepare to load an idol of God Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, onto a train at a railway station in Mumbai.

Devotees light firecrackers as an Lord Ganesh idol is transported through a street to a place of worship ahead of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai.

An artisan paints an idol of God Ganesh in Ajmer, Rajasthan.

Artisans work on an idol at a workshop in Mumbai.

Preparations in full swing in Kolkata.

Artisan gives last minute touch to Ganesh idols in Ahmedabad.