Punjabi community to enjoy the Baisakhi festival with great gusto today.
Baisakhi is one of the most colourful festivals of Punjabis, particularly the Sikh community among them which is celebrated with great zeal and gusto on the first day of traditional month of Baisakh, which normally falls on April 13 every year.
Over centuries, the Punjabi farmers would celebrate the day when they got free from harvesting wheat and other farm products. Before the eventful day they used to sell their produce at the nearest markets. With pockets full of money they would take their extended families to the various festival locations where traditional and folk singers showcased their skills.
There would be wrestling bouts, mimicry and dance performances by local youths apart from rollercoaster or big wheel rides. The young ones met their heart throbs in the anonymity of big crowds and renewed their promises of love and marriage.
All these years, the festival was purely a cultural and traditional affair but a religious fervour was added after 1699 when the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh created a new martial race called Khalsa on the Baisakhi day at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab.
From next year, 1700, the traditional affair attracted religious preachers reciting holy hymns at large congregations attended by both the peasantry and urban folk. Ongoing territorial and religious fights with the then Mughal rulers brought in a new chapter in the celebration of Baisakhi. The Sikhs would erect separate pandals and stages at festival sites to bring in more and more youngsters under their umbrella.
After the partition of Punjab in 1947, there were no celebrations for a few years
but the festive spirit of Punjabis refused to die. Ever since, the Punjabis of all hues, Sikhs, Hindus, refugees and settlers come together and celebrate the first day singing, dancing and merrymaking. Let the spirit of Baisakhi survive.
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