The Ganesh Chaturthi Story for Kids: How Ganesha Got His Elephant Head

Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the most joyful festivals of the year for children. There is a new idol to welcome home, modaks to make and eat, decorations to put up, and at the end, the bittersweet procession to the water for visarjan. It falls on the fourth day, chaturthī, of the bright fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada, usually in late August or September.

It is also a festival rich in stories. Ganesha is the god children feel closest to: round, playful, fond of sweets, riding a tiny mouse, and yet so wise that every puja and every new beginning starts with his name. Here are the stories that explain who he is, told the way children love to hear them.

How Ganesha was born

One day the goddess Parvati was preparing for her bath on Mount Kailasa. Shiva was away, and there was no one to guard the door. So Parvati took the fragrant turmeric paste she was using to bathe, shaped it into a boy, and breathed life into him. She called him her son and told him: guard this door, and do not let anyone in.

Soon after, Shiva returned home. The boy, who had never seen him, stood firmly in the doorway and refused to let him pass. Shiva was astonished that a child would stop him from entering his own home. His attendants tried to move the boy and failed. In the fight that followed, Shiva, in his anger, struck off the boy’s head.

The elephant head

When Parvati came out and saw what had happened, her grief and fury shook the heavens. She demanded that her son be brought back to life. Shiva, now understanding that the boy was Parvati’s child and had only been obeying his mother, promised to make things right. He sent his attendants out with an instruction: bring back the head of the first living creature you find. In many tellings they are told to find one lying with its head to the north.

The first creature they found was an elephant. They brought its head back, Shiva placed it on the boy’s body, and the boy came back to life. Shiva then made him the leader of all his ganas, his attendants, which is why he is called Ganapati or Ganesha, lord of the ganas. And Shiva declared that from that day, Ganesha would be worshipped first, before any other god, at the start of every undertaking.

Ganesha was honoured first among the gods for a simple reason: he did exactly what his mother asked, even when it was hard. That is why we still begin everything with his name.

The race around the world

Shiva and Parvati once offered a special fruit to whichever of their two sons, Ganesha or his brother Kartikeya, could go around the whole world first. Kartikeya leapt onto his peacock and flew off at once. Ganesha, whose vehicle was a little mouse, knew he could never win a race like that. So he quietly walked three times around his parents and bowed to them.

When asked what he was doing, he explained that his parents were his whole world, so going around them was the same as going around the world. Delighted, they gave him the fruit. Children love this story because the small one wins by thinking, not by speed.

Why we do not look at the moon

One night, after eating a great many modaks, Ganesha was riding home on his mouse when a snake crossed the path. The startled mouse threw him off, and his full belly burst open. Ganesha calmly tucked everything back in and tied the snake around his waist as a belt. Up in the sky, the moon, Chandra, saw this and laughed.

Ganesha, offended, cursed the moon. In some tellings Chandra is told he will fade away; in others, that anyone who looks at him on Ganesh Chaturthi will be falsely accused of wrongdoing. When the moon apologised, Ganesha softened the curse, which in many tellings is why the moon waxes and wanes. And that is why many families still avoid looking at the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi night. It is a gentle story about not mocking others.

Ganesha the writer

One more story is perfect for older children. When the sage Vyasa was ready to compose the Mahabharata, he needed someone to write it down as he spoke. Ganesha agreed, on one condition: Vyasa must never stop speaking. Vyasa agreed, with a condition of his own: Ganesha must understand every verse before writing it. In a popular telling, when Ganesha’s pen broke partway through, he snapped off one of his own tusks and kept writing, which is why he is often shown with a broken tusk.

How Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated

Families bring a clay idol of Ganesha home and install it with prayers. For one and a half, three, five, seven or ten days, depending on family tradition, he is treated as an honoured guest: offered flowers, durva grass and his favourite modaks, and sung to morning and evening. On the last day, the idol is carried in procession and immersed in water, with the call “Ganapati bappa morya” ringing out, asking him to come again soon next year.

The great public celebrations, with huge pandals and street processions, were made popular in Maharashtra by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak in the 1890s as a way to bring people together. Today the festival is celebrated across India and by Indian families all over the world.

Celebrating at home with children

Choose an unbaked clay idol, or make a small one with your child from natural clay; it dissolves cleanly in a bucket of water at home, and the water can then go to the garden. Let your child help shape modaks, even lopsided ones. And teach them Vakratunda Mahakaya, the two-line Ganesha shloka that most Indian children learn first, so that they can chant it at the aarti.

Vakratunda Mahakaya has its own page in our free shloka library, with the Devanagari, word-by-word meaning and pronunciation. If you would like your child to learn more Ganesha shlokas with a teacher, our live shloka classes start with exactly these.