Although most Hindus pray to Ganesha daily, they pay special tribute to him during the Ganesha Chaturthi festival in the lunar month of Bhadra (August-September). Ganesha Chaturthi is the most important festival of the year in the Southwest Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Communities there construct enormous–but temporary–statues of Ganesha surrounded by elaborate temples that are dismantled and recycled when the festival ends. Today Ganesha Chaturthi unites more than 50 million people for 10 days of joyous celebration.
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