Baisakhi one of the important festival for the Sikhs is celebrated
with great fervor in Ludhiana. For the Sikhs the day is a collective celebration
of New year along with the organisation of the order of the 'Khalsa Panth'
(Sikh brotherhood) by their tenth Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Baisakhi
which falls on the first day of the Baisakh month (April/May) i.e the
beginning of the harvest season is celebrated for three-days. It is the
harvest festival to collect the rabi (winter crop). On this day five 'Panj
Pyaras' (five senior Sikhs) are selected as Khalsas, symbolic of the original
leaders who took up the five kakas like Kesh (unshorn hair), kanga (small
boxwood comb in their hair), kaccha (a pair of shorts), kara (a steel
bangle) and a kirpan (a short dagger), which is an essential part of their
identity. They celebrate the day by wearing new clothes, prepare festival
food and performing the famous joyful traditional dance bhangra and
gidda .
On the festival day people wake up early in the morning and take bath
in the holy river and visit the nearby Gurdwaras to participate in the festivities
and special prayer meetings. At the end of the Baisakhi ardas, the devotees
get a specially prepared Kara prasad or sweetened semolina and also conduct
a guru ka langar or community lunch and then a Baisakhi procession will
be conducted , under the leadership of Panj Pyaras. The procession passes through
the major regions of the city with the performance of devotional songs
,mock duels, bhangra and gidda dance performances by the devotees.
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