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.