Story of Baisakhi…
For the large farming community of Punjab, Baisakhi Festival marks the time for harvest of rabi crops and they celebrate the day by performing joyful bhangra and gidda dance. For the our Sikh community, Baisakhi Festival has tremendous religious significance as it was on a Baisakhi Day in 1699, that Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru laid the foundation of Panth Khalsa-the Order of the Pure Ones.Baisakhi Festival falls on the first day of Vaisakh month (April-May) according to Nanakshahi or Sikh Calendar. For this reason, Baisakhi is also popularly known as Vaisakhi. According to English calendar, the date of Baisakhi corresponds to April 13 every year and April 14 once in every 36 Years As the festival has tremendous importance in our Sikh religion, major activities of the day are organized in Gurdwaras. We wake up early to prepare for the day. Many also take bath in the holy river to mark the auspicious occasion. After getting ready we pay a visit to our neighbourdood gurdwara and take part in the special prayer meeting organized for the day. At the end of the Baisakhi ardas, we receive specially prepared Kara prasad or sweetened semolina. This is followed by a guru ka langar.
I always go to 7 bungalows gurudwara sach khand darbar it is a very small gurudwara approx 1200sqft which serves langar to approx 25000 people in afternoon as well as on evening during baisakhi. A day before all our community ladies gather in gurudwara and make chapatis chop vegetables since langar is made in large quantities. Any religion, poor, rich can eat langar. Poor and rich people are made to sit together and they have langar as we don’t differentiate between rich and poor. Only the people who drink and come eat tabaco are made to sit differently as it’s not allowed in our holy gurudwara. Langar is served in plate made from leaves a simple langar consisting of Black dal, rice, kheer, salad and one vegetable is served since it’s too hot in April lassi is given . Wastage is not allowed in gurudwara as lot of street children still sleep hungry. Outside gurudwara there are stalls which serve sharbat, chole, fruits, pani puri to everyone.
The pattal made from leaves in which we have food is not thrown anywhere but is collected in these garbage bags and disposed properly as we belive in keeping our country clean.
Thank you to my readers for reading my story
