Baisakhi: Festival of New Year and harvesting ends

Over 10,000 Sikhs attended the festivities at Gurdwara Punja Sahib.

HASSAN ABDAL:

More than 1,400 Indian and 8,000 Pakistan Sikh yatrees (pilgrims) attended the three-day Baisakhi Festival that concluded here on Thursday at the Gurdwara Punja Sahib.

The festival is celebrated throughout the world, but Sikh pilgrims from the world over flock to Pakistan to visit the birthplace of the founder of Sikhism, Baba Guru Nanak, at Nankana Sahib near Lahore. Hassanabdal is also religiously significant for Sikhs because it was where their last human Guru, Guru Govind Singh
Maharaj, settled.

To mark the celebrations, devotees throng gurdawaras. They start celebrations early, with flowers and offerings in their hands and proceed towards gurdwaras before dawn.

Baisakhi is widely celebrated by Sikhs in Punjab, with festivities centred on the Panja Sahib complex in Hassanabdal, numerous shrines in Nankana Sahib, and at various historical sites in Lahore.

Baisakhi, an ancient festival dating back to the seventeenth century, also marks the beginning of a new solar year and harvest season.

It is one of the most significant holidays in the Sikh calendar, commemorating the establishment of the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib in 1699, by the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.

Furthermore, local Muslims and Hindus also attend the celebrations. Men and women in vibrant garbs retell the legends of Baisakhi.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2011.