Festival of Baisakhi is usually celebrated on April 13, but once in every 36 years the festival is celebrated on April 14. Joyful people of Punjab celebrate Baisakhi with exuberance and gaiety. Highpoint of Baisakhi celebrations is the performance of the traditional Bhangra and Gidda dance and the special langar served at Gurudwaras.
Vaisakhi marks birth of the Khalsa way of living in the Sikh religion.and commemorates the formation of Khalsa panth of warriors under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 It is additionally a spring harvest festival for the SikhsVaisakhi is also an ancient festival of Punjabis, marking the Solar New Year and also celebrating the spring harvest.It is regionally known by many names, but celebrated in broadly similar ways by some Hindus and Punjabis.]
Vaisakhi observes major events in the history of Sikhism and the Indian subcontinent that happened in the Punjab region.The significance of Vaisakhi as a major Sikh festival marking the birth of Sikh order started after the persecution and execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur for refusing to convert to Islam under the orders of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. This triggered the coronation of the tenth Guru of Sikhism and the historic formation of Khalsa, both on the Vaisakhi day. Vaisakhi was also the day when colonial British empire officials committed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on a gathering, an event influential to the Indian movement against colonial rule.
On Vaisakhi, Gurdwaras are decorated and hold kirtans, Sikhs visit and bathe in lakes or rivers before visiting local Gurdwaras, community fairs and nagar kirtan processions are held, and people gather to socialise and share festive foods. For people of Punjab, the festival is their traditional solar new year, a harvest festival and they may visit temples, meet friends and party over festive foods.
Date
Vaisakhi is traditionally observed on 14 April, every year.The festival is important to both Sikhs and Punjabis (people from the region of Punjab.The festival coincides with other new year festivals celebrated on the first day of Vaisakh in other regions of the Indian Subcontinent such as Pohela Boishakh, Bohag Bihu, Vishu, Puthandu among others
History
Each Sikh Vaisakhi festival is, in part, a remembrance of the birth of Sikh order which started after the ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur was persecuted and then beheaded under the orders of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, after he stood up for freedom of religious practice and refused to convert to Islam.The Guru's martyrdom triggered the coronation of the tenth and last Guru of Sikhism, and the formation of the sant-sipahi group of Khalsa,both on the Vaisakhi day.
The Vaisakhi festival Khalsa tradition started in the year 1699,as it is on this day that the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh laid down the foundation of the Panth Khalsa, that is the Order of the Pure Ones, by baptizing Sikh warriors to defend religious freedoms.This gave rise to the Vaisakhi or Baisakhi festival being observed as a celebration of Khalsa panth formation and is also known as Khalsa Sirjana Divas and Khalsa Sajna Divas. The festival is celebrated on Vaisakhi day (typically 14 April), since 1699. The Birth of the Khalsa Panth was either on 14 April 1699 or 30 March 1699.Since 2003, the Sikh Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee named it Baisakh (Vaisakh), making the first day of the second month of Vaisakh according to its new Nanakshahi calendar.
A special celebration takes place at Talwandi Sabo (where Guru Gobind Singh stayed for nine months and completed the recompilation of the Guru Granth Sahib), in the Gurudwara at Anandpur Sahib the birthplace of the Khalsa, and at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Nagar Kirtan
Sikhs communities organise processions called nagar kirtan (literally, "town hymn singing"). These are led by five khalsa who are dressed up as Panj Pyaras, and the processions through the streets. The people who march sing, make music, chant hymns from the Sikh texts. Major processions also carry a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib in reverence
Hinduisam
The first day of Vaisakh marks the traditional solar new yearand it is an ancient festival that predates the founding of Sikhism. The harvest is complete and crops ready to sell, representing a time of plenty for the farmers. Fairs and special thanksgiving pujas (prayers) are common in the Hindu tradition.
The first day of Vaisakh marks the solar new year,also known as Mesha Sankranti. It is the New Year's Day for Hindus in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab[33] and other parts of India. However, this is not the universal new year for all Hindus. For some, such as those in and near Gujarat, the new year festivities coincide with the five day Diwali festival.For others, the new year falls on Ugadi, Gudi Padwa and Cheti Chand, which falls a few weeks earlier.
The first day of Vaisakh marks the traditional solar new yearand it is an ancient festival that predates the founding of Sikhism. The harvest is complete and crops ready to sell, representing a time of plenty for the farmers. Fairs and special thanksgiving pujas (prayers) are common in the Hindu tradition.
The first day of Vaisakh marks the solar new year,also known as Mesha Sankranti. It is the New Year's Day for Hindus in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and other parts of India. However, this is not the universal new year for all Hindus. For some, such as those in and near Gujarat, the new year festivities coincide with the five day Diwali festival.For others, the new year falls on Ugadi, Gudi Padwa and Cheti Chand, which falls a few weeks earlier.
Vaisakhi is celebrated as Pohela Boishakh in West Bengal and Bahag Bihu in Assam, but typically one or two days after Vaisakhi.
Regional variations
Bikhu or Bikhauti in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, India
Bisu – Tulu New Year Day amongst the Tulu people in India
Rongali Bihu in Assam, India
Edmyaar 1 (Bisu Changrandi) – Kodava New Year.
Maha Vishuva Sankranti (or Pana Sankranti) in Odisha, India
JurShital (New Year) in Mithila (parts of Nepal and Bihar, India)
Naba Barsha or Pohela Boishakh in West Bengal and Tripura, India, Nepal and Bangladesh
Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, India
Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, India
Vishu in Kerala, India
Bikram Samwat / Vaishak Ek in Nepal
Aluth Avuruthu in Sri Lanka.
Songkran in Thailand
Chol Chnam Thmey in Cambodia
Pii Mai Lao in Laos
Thingyan in Myanmar
Harvest festival
Vaisakhi is a harvest festival for people of the Punjab region.In the Punjab, Vaisakhi marks the ripening of the rabi harvest. Vaisakhi also marks the Punjabi new year.[58] This day is observed as a thanksgiving day by farmers whereby farmers pay their tribute, thanking God for the abundant harvest and also praying for future prosperity.The harvest festival is celebrated by Sikhs and Punjabi Hindus.Historically, during the early 20th century, Vaisakhi was a sacred day for Sikhs and Hindus and a secular festival for all Muslims and non-Muslims including Punjabi Christians.In modern times, sometimes Christians participate in Baisakhi celebrations along with Sikhs and Hindus
Aawat pauni
Aawat pauni is a tradition associated with harvesting, which involves people getting together to harvest the wheat. Drums are played while people work. At the end of the day, people sing dohay to the tunes of the drum.
Fairs and dances
The harvest festival is also characterized by the folk dance, Bhangra which traditionally is a harvest dance.
Fairs or Melas are held in many parts of Punjab, India to mark the new year and the harvesting season. Vaisakhi fairs take place in various places, including Jammu City, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi and Samba, in the Pinjore complex near Chandigarh,in Himachal Pradesh cities of Rewalsar, Shimla, Mandi and Prashar Lakes.
According to Aziz-ud-din Ahmed, Lahore used to have Baisakhi Mela after the harvesting of the wheat crop in April. However, adds Ahmed, the city started losing its cultural vibrancy in 1970s after Zia-ul-Haq came to power, and in recent years "the Pakistan Muslim League (N) government in Punjab banned kite flying through an official edict more under the pressure of those who want a puritanical version of Islam to be practiced in the name of religion than anything else". Unlike the Indian state of Punjab that recognizes the Vaisakhi Sikh festival as an official holiday,the festival is not an official holiday in Punjab or Sindh provinces of Pakistan where Islamic holidays are officially recognized instead.On 8 April 2016, Punjabi Parchar at Alhamra (Lahore) organised a show called Visakhi mela, where the speakers pledged to "continue our struggle to keep the Punjabi culture alive" in Pakistan through events such as Visakhi Mela. Elsewhere Besakhi fairs or melas are held in various places including Eminabad and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Outside India
Pakistan has many sites that are of historic importance to the Sikh faith, such as the birth place of Guru Nanak. These sites attract pilgrims from India and abroad every year on Vaisakhi.
Pakistan used to have many more Sikhs, but a vast majority moved to India during the 1947 India-Pakistan partition. Contemporary Pakistan has about 20,000 Sikhs in a total population of about 200 million Pakistanis, or about 0.01%.These Sikhs, and thousands more arrive from other parts of the world for pilgrimage, observe Vaisakhi in Western Punjab (Pakistan) with festivities centered on the Panja Sahib complex in Hasan Abdal, Gurudwaras in Nankana Sahib, and in various historical sites in Lahore.
In Canada, the large, local Sikh communities in the western Province Of British Columbia cities of Vancouver, Abbotsford, and Surrey hold their annual Vaisakhi celebrations in April,which often include a Nagar Kirtan (parade), with the festival in Surrey having attracted over 200,000 people in 2014. The 2016 festivities in Surrey broke a record, attracting more than 350,000 people, making it one of the largest such celebrations outside of India. The 2017 attendance in Surrey has reportedly topped 400,000, causing organizers to consider future distribution of the festival over several days and local cities, particularly in areas of economic disadvantage which would benefit from the generous, charitable efforts seen during Vaisakhi celebrations.
Dhol Bhangra players at Vasakhi in England
The United Kingdom has a large Sikh community originating from the Indian sub-continent, East Africa and Afghanistan. The largest concentrations of Sikhs in the UK are to be found in the West Midlands (especially Birmingham and Wolverhampton) and London. The Southall Nagar Kirtan is held on a Sunday a week or two before Vaisakhi. The Birmingham Nagar Kirtan is held in late April in association with Birmingham City Council, and it is an annual event attracting thousands of people which commences with two separate nagar kirtans setting off from gurdwaras in the city and culminating in the Vaisakhi Mela at Handsworth Park.
In the United States, there is usually a parade commemorating the Vaisakhi celebration. In Manhattan, New York City people come out to do "Seva" (selfless service) such as giving out free food, and completing any other labor that needs to be done. In Los Angeles, California, the local Sikh community consisting of many Gurdwaras holds a full day Kirtan (spiritual music) program followed by a parade.
The Sikh community, a subgroup of the Malaysian Indian ethnic minority race, is an ethnoreligious minority in Malaysia, which is why Vaisakhi is not a public holiday. However, in line with the government's efforts to promote integration among the country's different ethnic and religious groups, the prime minister, Najib Razak has announced that beginning 2013, all government servants from the Sikh Malaysian Indian community will be given a day off on Vaisakhi Day. Vaisakhi 'open houses' are also held across the country during the day of the festival, or the closest weekend to it.
