Who is Lord Ganesha and what is his significance?

In India the Festival of Ganesh Chathurthi is celebrated with great pompousness.

Lord Ganesh is believed to be the Lord of New Beginnings and Obstacle remover. Every year the festival is celebrated for a period of 11 days where the idol of the Lord one brings to their home and then depending on one’s personal preference one would keep him home for a period of either 1.5, 3, 5, 7, 9 days and then do the immersion of the idol into a water body.
The story of Lord Ganesha birth when one hears seems to be quite bizarre and illogical.

The mother Parvati creates Ganesha from dirt, and he is the most loyal son she has around. One day she asks him to guard the door while she takes bath, only then her husband Shiva arrives, and wants to enter the place where Ganesha stops him, in rage of being not allowed to enter inside Shiva cuts off Ganesha’s head. Later when he gets to know the fact from his wife Parvati he repents and wants to bring back the boy to life, , Shiva quickly finds the head of the first animal he comes across which is an elephant and replaces the boy’s head with that of an elephant. There are other versions also to the creation of Ganesha.

To think from an intellectual point of view this is the most illogical and unbelievable story. However it holds a far deeper meaning and symbolism.

Parvati the mother is the form of Supreme energy that resides within us in the base of the spine where the ultimate energy of oneself resides also known as Kundalini Energy or the Serpent Energy. When this energy is inactive our mind drifts away from the source within and this makes us feel attached to the world, and this attachment to desires, objects, ego etc is the dirt that gathers in the mind making it a source of pain.

When Parvati realizes she needs to purify herself and takes this dirt off her mind she creates a boy out if it. This boy is made up of all the attachments, ego, desires, ignorance etc. so when the Lord of the Universe Shiva arrives in front of him, the boy can't recognize Him. Because the ego stops us from respecting anything bigger than itself. Shiva however can clearly see the ego and ignorance the boy is made up of. The presence of the divine destroys the negative. Shiva cuts the boys head off. But merely killing is not the divine purpose, regeneration is.

So Shiva now replaces the boy’s ignorance filled head with the largest head available which represents wisdom and awareness.

Thus Ganesh is born. He is the Lord of intelligence and awareness, which is why he's called the vighna-harta, the remover of obstacles. When we become inner oriented and aware, obstacles leave our path.

We celebrated this festival by bringing him home for 1.5 days and it was a time of total bliss and good energies all through out. Every year I look forward to this festival as it brings in lot of joy, togetherness, bonding. Sharing some of our images from the festival. For me it was personally a time of learning, service, joy, bonding and a lot of energy upliftment. I did not want to end it but as all good things come to end so did this have to :-(

If we look into every part of Lord Ganesh, it holds a deep meaning which helps us think beyond the individual limited beliefs that we hold and aligns us with the larger universal self.

The Big heads indicates Intelligence, Power, and Wisdom
Small Eyes represents Concentration
The large Ears would ask us to listen more and carefully
Small Mouth signifies to talk less
The Conch in his left hand represents spirituality and to pull you nearer to your highest good.
The Lotus in his other left hand is a symbol for ascent of the spirit to greater heights.
The sweet in his hand represents the rewards of all the hard work. The sweetest of all.
The Axe in the right hand of the Ganesh represents to cut off the bonds of attachments.
The right upraised hand signifies blessings and the protection that one gets from the divine.
The Trident in his right hand represents the 3 powers of Love, wisdom and action.
The broken tusk tells you to retain good and throw away the bad.
The Trunk means high efficiency, adaptability and the ability to difference between good and evil.
The Big belly of the lord signifies all the known and the unknown of the universe that exist within oneself. Also it indicates that good and bad is part of life one should learn to digest both peacefully.
The mouse at his feet side represents both desire and ability to reach into every nook and corner of the monkey mind. Also it means that you should be in control of your desire, and desire should not control you.
The bowl of fruits represents that the whole world is at your feel and there for asking.

This is the story and significance of Lord Ganesh, though there are other stories also of the lord’s creation but this one is so far believed and accepted the most.

Lord Ganesh denotes the supreme consciousness that pervades all and brings order in this universe.

Part content source:
https://www.amritapuri.org/3714/ganesha.aum
http://www.johnlund.com/Hindu-Gods-The-Hindu-God-Ganesha-Picture-and-Story.asp