2018 Video From France Viral As Ganesh Chaturthi Celebrations In Holland

A 2018 video, from a festival in France, of a large idol of Ganesh, made from oranges and lemons is being shared on a social media with a false claim that it is from Holland, where locals celebrated the recently concluded Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.

The caption with the video reads as, "Holland is said to be the capital of orange in the world. The locals use the best part of their harvest to celebrate the festival of Vinayaka Chaturthi."

Click here to view the post.

Telugu news channel, Sakshi TV posted the video on their YouTube handle on September 14, 2021 with the same false claim that it shows Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Holland. The video can be seen below.

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Fact Check

A keyword search for 'Ganpati idol made out of + oranges + lemon' showed results for the same idol in a 2018 photo feature published by United Kingdom based news outlet, The Telegraph. The February 16, 2018 photo story, published a photo of the similar idol, claiming it is from France and crediting the picture to news agency Reuters.

The caption published by The Telegraph reads, "A sculpture made with lemons and oranges which depicts elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha is seen during the 85th Lemon festival around the theme 'Bollywood' in Menton, France."

We then looked for the picture on Reuters' photo site and found it uploaded on February 15, 2018. The pictured credited to Jean-Pierre Amet, is captioned, "A sculpture made with lemons and oranges which depicts elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha is seen during the 85th Lemon festival around the theme "Bollywood" in Menton, France."

We then did a screen-to-screen comparison of the photo by Reuters and scenes from the viral video which showed us several similarities. The comparison can be seen below.

A search for Fete Du Citron can be found in a story pubilshed by Eurotunnel, which describes it as, "The Fête du Citron (also known as the Carnival of Menton) is an annual celebration of the leaving of winter and the coming of spring, where the entire town of Menton becomes coloured with locally grown oranges and lemons. The fruits are collected in abundance and used to make impressive structures and displays that are paraded through the town for a period of two weeks."

The article further adds that every year the festival has a different theme around which everything is centered with some themes in the past being, "Bollywood" and "Broadway". More images of the "Bollywood" themed 2018 Lemon festival including the orange made Ganesh idol can be seen on the site of Fete du Citron.

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