Team Herald
Ponda: In keeping with a 350-year-old tradition, Shiroda’s Naik Vaidya family will venerate a Ganesh idol made of sandalwood, which is painted and worshipped year after year, making theirs an eco-friendly celebration handed down from their ancestors.
While Ganeshas made of clay are worshipped and then immersed, everywhere else in Goa, the Naik Vaidya family continues to venerate their sandalwood Ganesha which has now become a family heirloom.
To mark the 350th year of the family’s Chaturthi celebrations, around 50 Naik Vaidya brothers and cousins, living in different parts of the world, have united in their native village of Waje-Shiroda. Over five days, the family celebrates Chaturthi with traditional meals and sweets, and other events, which witness the participation of people from across the village.
The family was named Naik Vaidya after a woman of the Naik family who used medicine prepared from roses to treat sick people in the village.
