Khalsa Day Parade first in a century in Victoria
Victoria had a Khalsa Day Parade for Vaisakhi on Sunday for the first time in more than a hundred years.
The event, which brought out more than 1,000 people, commemorates the birth of the order of the Khalsa. The celebration was organized by members of the Gurdwara (a Sikh place of worship) Singh Sabha.
“The turnout absolutely exceeded our expectations, with people coming from the Lower Mainland and a number from Duncan, Nanaimo and further upisland,” said Jatinder Singh, a volunteer on the organizing committee. “It was full of life and there was lots of colour.”
The parade started on Burnside Road with a motorcycle escort, martialarts displays and a religious procession with hymns and a float. The float, which was a converted bus, was lent by another gurdwara in Vancouver. It was decorated by young volunteers with flowers and garlands.
The procession ended in front of the Gurdwara Singh Sabha on Cecelia Road, where people were treated to langar — a free vegetarian meal typically served by a gurdwara.
Although this was not the first Khalsa Day Parade in Victoria, it has been many years since the last one. Researchers found a mention of a Khalsa Day Parade more than a century ago in a copy of the British Colonist.
While no date for the next celebration has been set, organizers say people won’t have to wait 100 years.
“People have already started to tell us that we should do this again next year,” said Singh.
Sikhs celebrate Vaisakhi, which typically falls in the middle of April, as the day on which the 10th guru, Guru Gobind Singh, created the order of the Khalsa, the collective body of observant Sikhs, in 1699.
Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world, with approximately 30 million followers worldwide and more than 400,000 in Canada.