Vaisakhi | |
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![]() Sikh procession in Birmingham, England. | |
Official name | Vaisakhi |
Also called | Baisakhi, Vaisakha Jayanti, Visakhī |
Observed by | Hindus, Sikhs |
Type | Religious and harvest festival[1] |
Significance | Solar new year,[2][3][4][5] harvest festival, Initiation of Dogra/Shastri Calendar, Birth of the Khalsa, |
Celebrations | Fairs, processions and temple decorations |
Observances | Religious gatherings and practices |
Begins | 1 Vaisakh (13 April) |
Ends | 2 Vaisakh (14 April) |
Date | 13 or 14 April[1] |
2024 date | Saturday, 13 April[6] |
Related to | South and Southeast Asian solar New Year |
Vaisakhi, also known as Baisakhi,[8] marks the first day of the month of Vaisakh and is traditionally celebrated annually on 13 April and sometimes 14 April.[9][2][10] It is seen as a spring harvest celebration primarily in Punjab and Northern India.[11][12][13][14][15] Whilst it is culturally significant as a festival of harvest, in many parts of India, Vaisakhi is also the date for the Indian Solar New Year.[16][17][18]
For Sikhs, in addition to its significance as the harvest festival,[3] during which Sikhs hold kirtans, visit local gurdwaras, community fairs, hold nagar kirtan processions, raise the Nishan Sahib flag, and gather to socialize and share festive foods,[2][19][20] Vaisakhi observes major events in the history of Sikhism and the Indian subcontinent that happened in the Punjab region.[19][21] Vaisakhi as a major Sikh festival marks the birth of the Khalsa order by Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of Sikhism, on 13 April 1699.[22][23][24] Later, Ranjit Singh was proclaimed as Maharaja of the Sikh Empire on 12 April 1801 (to coincide with Vaisakhi), creating a unified political state.[25]
Vaisakhi was also the day when Bengal Army officer Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to shoot into a protesting crowd in Amritsar, an event which would come to be known the Jallianwala Bagh massacre; the massacre proved influential to the history of the Indian independence movement.[19]
This holiday is observed by Hindus and is known by various regional names in other parts of India. For many Hindu communities, the festival is an occasion to ritually bathe in sacred rivers such as Ganges, Jhelum, and Kaveri, visit temples, meet friends, take part in other festivities, and perform a mandatory daan (charity) especially of hand fans, water pitchers and seasonal fruits. Community fairs are held at Hindu pilgrimage sites. In many areas, processions of temple deities are taken out. The holiday also marks the worship and propitiation of various deities, such as Durga in Himachal Pradesh, Surya in Bihar, and Vishnu in southern India.[26] Although Vaisakhi began as a grain harvest festival for Hindus and its observance predates the creation of Sikhism,[27][28] on 13 April 1699 it gained historical association with the Sikhs following the inauguration of the Khalsa.[37]
In some north Indian states, including the Jammu Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, the solar New Year, which occurs at the spring equinox, is celebrated as a festival known as Vaisakhi.
PechilisRaj2013p48
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).The first day of the Hindu solar month Vaisakha (Apr-May), it is New Year's Day by the solar calendar of South and East India and a spring harvest festival in North and East India, celebrated with melas, dances, and folksongs.
Vaisakhi has been a harvest festival in Punjab - an area of northern India - for a long time, even before it became so important to Sikhs.
Vaisakhi predates Sikhism and began as a grain harvest festival in the Punjab region of India.
Baisakhi, which is celebrated as New Year's day in India, follows a solar calendar and usually falls on 13 April. It began as a grain harvest festival for Hindus, but has acquired historical association for Sikhs.
Baisakhi is celebrated mainly in the north, particularly in the state of Punjab and its surrounding regions. In the days when pilgrims still traveled through the Himalayas on foot, this festival marked the beginning of the Himalayan pilgrimage season; during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Baisakhi was the occasion for a great trading festival in the town of Haridwar, the gateway to the Himalayan shrines. Although this fair has long been eclipsed, Baisakhi is still the climactic bathing (snana) day for the Haridwar Kumbha Mela and Ardha Kumbha Mela, each of which is a bathing festival that occurs about every twelve years when Jupiter is in the sign of Aquarius (for the Kumbha Mela) or Leo (for the Ardha Kumbha Mela).
Sikhs were also instructed to assemble wherever the Guru happened to be at the Hindu spring festival of Vaisakhi (or Baisakhi), and in the autumn, at Diwali.