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Prince George, B.C. – Members of the global Sikh community have been taking part in Vaisakhi celebrations since mid-April, and this weekend invite people from throughout the north to join the celebration in Prince George.

Vaisakhi is one of the major dates on the Sikh calendar, marking the New Year festival while also commemorating 1699, the year Sikhism was born as a faith.  Vaisakhi is celebrated April 13^th to the 14^th but as Bally Bassi, one of the local organizers says, each Sikh community in B.C. sets the date(s) on which its celebration will be held and people from far and wide travel to that community to participate in their festival.

Bassi explains that “in B.C. we have a huge number of Sikh communities and each supports the outlying communities and the bigger cities.  So Vaisakhi celebrations happen in Surrey, Vancouver, Prince George, Abbotsford.  The big ones happen down south during the April 13^th weekend or the weekend after and we support the bigger communities and vice versa.”

“In Prince George our event has been scheduled for the May long weekend every year for the past several years.”  She says “we’ve got a lot of people coming from out of town, from England, down south in (greater) Vancouver, sometimes from the States, you have people coming from outlying communities, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Vanderhoof, Fort St James, Quesnel and you do have school busses that come in as well.”

Bassi says it is also harvesting season and the congregation and community gets together to celebrate “through events during the week where a lot of the food preparation and preparation of prayers and hymns are happening.”

It all culminates with today’s parade procession from Davis Road to CN Centre.  Bassi says “that takes place with the Beloved Five, five Sikhs who are baptized, who walk barefooted at the front of the procession leading from the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara (temple) and the rest of the congregation ride on trailers which carry our holy scriptures or walk to CN Centre.  Once we arrive there are public announcements, speeches and displays of some artifacts from the Sikh culture as well.”

The parking lot will also be dotted with food and refreshment booths.  “There’s Pujabi food available at no cost to the community of Prince George.  So its embracing the Sikh community and the cultural religion and sharing diversity together.”  One of the food booths is offering pizza and Bassi explains that “in the different tents or booths what happens is different groups put forth their name and they volunteer to host those booths.”

“So, for example, there will be a pizza booth, samosas, chick peas and bread. There will be candies, milkshakes, other booths that will have the traditional East Indian bread.  So there’s five or six booths, if not more, of different ethnic food and refreshments.”

Bassi says the weather has been sunny and warm the past two years and up to fifteen hundred or even two thousand people have taken part in the parade celebration.  However, she also notes that “we’ve done these Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtans in the rain and we’ve had hail, we’ve had cold with our winter jackets on” but nothing will stop the celebration from taking place.  “It will happen,” she says emphatically.

The parade procession starts at 10 this morning from the Guru Nanak Darbar temple on Davis Road.  Festivities at the CN Centre parking lot run from 12 noon until 2 pm.