Being
born in Pune, the one festival I await is the grand and pompous, the flamboyant
and majestic, the one festival where we dance our hearts out and still put on
lots of weight, (owing to our pot-bellied God), all the streets light up with
bright lights, and it’s Dhol Tasha everywhere Galore! Yes it is The Ganesh
Chaturti!
Planning
to make your 10 day event even more exciting? Here’s a list of activities that
will make this day even more fun for your friends and family…
1) Crown Making Contest
Items:- 3-5 Packs including glue, scissors, laces, sequences,
stickers and paper plate.
How to play:- Make a team of 4-6 people and hand out the pack, give them a
time limit of 5 minutes and ask them to make a crown for Lord Ganesha with the
given items.
Here’s a picture of the crowns the teams made and below, the kids
who wore them around later.
22) Talk about Ganesh
Chaturti
Ever wondered why we celebrate Ganesh Chaturti?
Wish to teach kids Indian Mythology?
Wish to surprise yourself by knowing things about Ganpati you
probably didn’t know?
Or just time to refresh some of Grandma’s stories?
Then, nothing beats an interactive session, you can have with
someone who is knowledgable? Or do some research yourself and tell everybody
about it?
Last year I invited Mrs. Joshi, my sweet neighbourhood aunty,
who also works at AIR, to come over and share Ganpati Tales, Facts and
interesting stuff about the festival. Everybody truly enjoyed the session!
3) Ganpati’s lost Trunk
Items needed:- Poster of Lord Ganesha
Another Ganesha Trunk with double tapes
Blindfold
A classic “Pin The Donkey” version for Ganesh Chaturti.
4) Ganpati Bingo
Who doesn’t like screaming “Ganpati Bappa Morya”?
While playing this game, I usually give one prize for four
corners first, a Bingo T, a Bingo U, square bingo and 1st 3 Bingos' win.
If you get any one of these, you scream out, “Ganpati Bappa
Morya!”
They can be found on Amazon and the sample images are below:
You can purchase these Ganpati Bingo sheets on Amazon here : https://amzn.in/d/5l1RQAz
5) Feeding Modaks
Items: Modaks and Blinfold
Ganpati loves Modaks and hence having a game with Modaks is a
must. For this game, ask teams to pair up with any desired partner.
Now, one of them sits on the chair while the other stands
behind him/her.
The person standing behind will be blindfolded and from
behind is supposed to feed the one sitting on the chair.
The person on the chair will hold a plate / bowl of a pre-determined number of Modaks.
They have one minute to finish the task without wasting any Modaks
and the team that finishes maximum number of Modaks within a minute will be the
winning team!
6) Ganesh Chaturti Quiz
Well, we all know how India went crazy over KBC, so test
everybody’s knowledge about Bappa Morya with a Ganpati Quiz.
Below I have listed 10 questions you could ask:-
1) How many different names
does Lord Ganesha have?
A: 108
2) Which great patriot
introduced and popularized Ganesh Chaturti in India?
A:- Lokmanya
Tilak
3) Ganesha’s beloved mother
and Father are?
A: Shiv and
Parvati
4) Who installed the first
sarvajanik Ganesh idol?
A:- Bhausaheb
Laxman Javale
5) How many days is Ganesh
Chaturti celebrated?
A:- 10 Days
6) Which is the main sweet
dish of this festival?
A:- Modak
7) On which day did Ganesh
Chaturti start this year?
A:- 17th
September 2015
8) Which month of the Hindu
calendar is Ganesh Chaturti celebrated?
A:-
Bhadrapada
9) Which animal is the
vehicle of Lord Ganpati?
A:- Mouse
10)
Which organization celebrated Ganesh Chaturti in London for the
first time?
a) The Hindu Culture and
Heritage Society
b) The National Holy Society
c) The Indian Culture
Society
d) The Hindu Swayamsevak
Sangh
A:- (a)
Another
fun thing the host could do is ask people to name 15 names of Ganesha in 20
seconds.
7) Antakshiri
Make it a fun affair with different rounds of Antakshiri
a) Sing a song from a word
In this
round, the host can make a list of words with or without the Ganpati Theme.
Write each of these words on a piece of paper and put it in a bowl. Teams take
turns to pick up a word and sing any song having the word in it. You can allow
the teams to sing as many songs as they can in one minute, 1 point per song. To make it fun
and involve everybody, you can also give extra points to team best chorus, and
the dancing team.
After all,
prize ke liye kuch be karega!
So, here’s my
list of words:-
Ganesha
Ganpati
Aarti
Pooja
Lambodhara
Parvati
Deva
Morya
Shivam
b) The second round can be a
Pictionary round, where you can draw items on the chits and teams take turns to
pick them out.
Say for
example a team picks up a chit with a picture of flowers on it, they have to
sing songs with the word Phool in them.
Other items
that can be drawn are:-
Paan, stars,
plate of aarti, horse, etc
c) Third round of
antakshiri:-
Use chits and
write down names of songs, the teams take turns to guess the name of the movie,
and are also required to sing the mentioned song.
Some songs
and movies:-
Sadda dil vi
tu (ga ga ga ganpati):- Anybody can dance
Deva Shree
ganesha:- Agneepath
Mera hi
jalwa:- Wanted
Morya Re
Morya Re:- Don
d) Fourth Round of
antakshiri, you can play a sound clip and the teams identify which song and
which movie it is from
My list of
clipped songs:-
Shree
Ganeshaya Deemahi – Viruddh
Sindoor Lal
Chadayo – Vaastav
Deva ho deva
ganpati deva – Humse badkar kaun
Ganpati aapne
gaon chale – Old agneepath
8) Paper and pen games
Papers and pens are easily available resources and hence I’ve
thought of 4 such games, they are listed below:-
a) The minute to win it Ganpati names:- In this game the participants are to write down in a minute
maximum different names of Lord Ganesha, the longest list wins!
b) Color the Ganpati :- If
you wish to keep the kids engaged then do this activity where you get printed
sheets with Ganpati Image on them, hand it over to the kids to do the rest.
Well, the adults could also use some creativity.
c) The G game :- In this
game, ask the participants to write down maximum words that begin with the
letter “G”. Some examples could be:-
Names of
places starting with a G
Names of
people you can think of that begin with a G
Why only G?
It’s Ganesh Chaturti Duh!
d) Ganpati Bappa Morya! :-
Ask the right handed participants to use their left hand to write, “Ganpati
Bappa Morya” in their preferred language. Whoever manages to write it the
maximum number of times in a minute, is the one who takes the prize.
9) Just some extras
Some more ideas would be:-
a) Have a ramp walk with kids preferably
dressed like mythological characters.
b) You could also have a
modak making and a modak eating competition
c) Why not have a selfie
with Ganpati contest in your society, and create a hash tag for the same?
d) Rangoli making
competition
e) On spotters:- Most
colorful dress, the biggest nose ring, matching clothes with the ganpati, the
biggest bindi, maximum buttons, biggest belly like the ganpati etc
Okay
then! What you waiting for? Go over and have that Ganpati Party!
