Interesting facts about Lord Ganesha

Goddess Parvati carved an idol of a boy out of

turmeric powder and breathed life into it. She
did so to have someone as loyal to her as
Nandi was to Lord Shiva. The boy was later
called Ganesha, which means lord of
the Ganas.

 The reason why Ganpati Bappa has an

elephants head is that when he denied Lord
Shiva from entering his abode, because
Goddess Parvati was taking a bath inside, Shiva
decapitated his head in anger; an elephant was
the first animal that Lord Brahma found when
he went out to look for one, which is why
Ganeshas head was replaced with that of an
elephant.

 Lord Ganesha is the first God to be prayed

whenever a holy procession takes place. This
was the condition following which Goddess
Parvati had agreed to calm down after she
decided to destroy the whole world following
Ganeshas decapitation.

 In one of the folklores, Lord Shiva announced

Lord Ganesha to be the first God to be prayed
on any holy ceremony when he, in a
competition with his brother Lord Kartikeya to
cover the whole world, circled around his
parents citing them as his whole world. This
pleased Lord Shiva to no end and he blessed
his son to be the first God to be prayed.

 Lord Ganesha was the one who wrote

Mahabharata as sage Vyasa recited it to him.
This was done on the condition that Vyasa
would not stop while reciting the epic and
Ganesha would not stop while writing, and also
that Ganesha would not merely write it but
would also understand every verse of it.
Popular legends say that it took both of them
three years, of continuous speaking and
writing, to complete the mega epic.

 We see one of Ganeshas tusk broken; the

reason behind this is when he was writing the
epic Mahabharata, the feather that he was
using as a pen broke, but to maintain the pact
of writing it continously, he broke off his tusk
and completed the epic.

 Some people are of the belief that Lord

Parashurama was the one who cut off one of
Ganeshas tusks because he didnt allow him to
enter the Shiva abode and meet Lord Shiva,
who was busy praying. Ganesha didnt save
himself out of respect for the axe that was
used to cut off his task, as the axe was given to
Lord Parashurama by Lord Shiva himself

 In the rare incidents when we hear of Lord

Ganesha being angry, he once cursed the
moon as he laughed at his fat belly. Lord
Ganesha cursed him saying whoever looks at
the moon on Ganesh Chaturthi would be falsely
blamed. This is still believed in most sections of
the Hindu faith, as people avoid looking at the
moon on Ganesh Chaturthi.

 Talking of his consorts, Ganesha is said to have

two wives, Riddhi (meaning prosperity) and
Siddhi (spirituality). He also has two sons from
his marriages, Shubh and Labh.