Many of the Sikhs in our city celebrated Diwali! Can someone explain what other religious celebrations Sikhs celebrate? And also, a little history of celebrating these days, especially the celebrations that are common to religions other than Sikhism!
Ahmadjee, Diwali in India is more than a religious celebration..it is a cultural festival celebrated all over India for centuries..It is part of the culture now crossing religious boundaries liek Basant, Christmas and New Year etc. Sikhs and other Indians who celebrate Diwali don't necessarily take part in religious component like puja etc..but eating and distributing mithai and doing deep-maala and fireworks is not religious ritual..it is folk festival. It is also said that the 6th Sikh Guru who was in prison of Mughal emperor in Gwaliar was released on a Diwali day and Sikhs celebrated that diwali and since then to celebrate his home coming.
Although in US, Sikhs dont celebrate it with that fervour as Hindus do .e.g. last weekend when dozens of places were celebrating Diwali in California most of the Sikhs(30,000 to 40,000) went to Yuba City instead to take part in the 23rd Sikh parade in that city held every year since 1969 to celebrate the Compilation day of Guru Granth, the holy book.
Channji, Sikhs will go to any party for Mithai??? I see no difference between Sikhs and Ahmadis then. I knew we were more alike than different.
Wah Guru da Khalsa, tey
Wah Guru di Jay!
NYA that is true...we will eat mithay chaawal di daig at any muzlim faqeer's mazar with same ease.
Shukria Chanjee!
So what are the religious celebrations of Sikhs? When did they start, what's the back ground?
Did Baba Guru Nanak celebrated Diwali, Eid etc?
Ahmadjee, I don't think Baba Nanak gave two hoots about eid or diwali..he was too busy doing what he thought was the right thing.
Here are major Sikh religious days or festivals:
Vaisakhi: Although a peasant festival celebrated in Punjab for long time, the 10th Sikh Guru created Khalsa on the say of Vaisakhi. Sikhs adopted it as a religious day and now Hindus and sikhs have abandoned Vaisakhi altogether.
Gur-gaddi dinn: It is the day when a Guru was given the Guruship from his predecessor. There are 10 Gurus plus the 11th Holy book..so that mean Sikhs have 10 such days. Most popular amongst all these is the day when they say Holy Book Guru Granth was established as Guru. In addition they have birthdays of Gurus as Gur-purab days.
Martyrdom day of 5th Guru, 9th Guru, two sons of 10th Guru, Hola-mohalla(marshal form of Holi), martydom of 40 sikh companions of 10th Guru known as chaali muktas are other religious days.
Of course, the first day of every month(desi months) is celebrated minorly as a sacred day.
All of the above are celebrated with recitation of the holy book, with singing of ballads, sports events and a general good old Punjabi Mela.
The above days are know as religious days for all sikhs..but in addition to these sikhs from different regions celebrate their local days usually rememberance of a local saint or martyr.
If you look at the above list, almost all of these celebrations are historic days not religious holy days. There is no particular day holier than the others per Guru Nanak..everyday is as holy and sacred in our life as anyother.
Hope that helps.
When i Was in UK the sikhs near me refused to celebrate diwali because something to do with there golden temple being blown up and attacked by the indian armed forces sent in by indira gandhi!
Ok here's the story my sikh friend is telling me right now...
"152 kings and their God was in prison and the king who had imprisoned everyboday said, only those people will be freed who can hold a thread in his shawl... so all of them were able to grad a thread and they a were freed. And diwali is a celebration of their freedom, it's that sameday."
And that's why celebrate it. But they are different than Hindus in the sense that they do not worship idols, or make them. And he's saying that there are so many other things he doesn't know. Dumb guy!
Pakistan99: He is only partially right. It was Jahangir who imprisoned 6th Sikh Guru and some Hindu rajas and princes. Guru was to be released on good terms..I don't know the details but some kind of misunderstanding was cleared.....Guru asked for the release of the hindu rajas and princeses also...to which jahangir declared whoever can hold his(Guru's) gown will also be released hoping it will be few people but it turned out to be 52 in total were able to hold that shawl/gown and were released.(that figure of 152 above is wrong).
Channji, now you know why Roman and I were pulling on your Dhoti. You are our Bakhshish and salvage.
Chanji.. You are Sikh? I didnt know we had any on this site?!?!?!