Out of many stories depcited in Ganesh Upanishad, two popular stories about Ganesha are recorded in Ganesha Kanda of the Brahma Vivartha Puranam as detailed below.

" Ganesha and his brother Kartikeya once had a dispute as to who was the elder of the two. The matter was referred to Lord Shiva for final decision. Shiva decided that whoever would make a tour of the whole world and come back first to the starting point had the right to be the elder. Kartikeya having a fastest ride flew off at once on his ride, the peacock, to make a circuit of the world. But the wise Ganesha knowing that his parents represent the entire manifested universe went, in loving worshipfulness, around his divine parents and completed the circuit. Thus the dispute was settled in favour of Lord Ganesha, who was thereafter acknowledged as the elder of the two brothers.

One day Ganesha received enormous amount of sweets from his devotees and after eating all those sweets his belly was burst open and all of the sweets that he had eaten were scattered around him. The Moon saw the whole scene and laughed. Parvathi, mother of Ganesha noticed the moon laughing at her son and cursed the Moon for his arrogance decreeing that anyone who happens to see the moon will incur bad luck. When Moon asked for forgiveness, Parvathi softened his curse such that anyone who looks at the moon on the night of the Ganesh Chaturthi will be falsely accused and suggested a remedy that if someone inadvertently sees the moon on this night, he/she may remedy the situation by listening to (or reciting) the story of Lord Krishna about the semantaka mani (jewel).