Culture - - Posted on July, 21 at 8:46 pm
Baisakhi, the New year’s day of Punjab falls on April 13 every year and on April 14 after every 36 years. The festival is for thanksgiving for a good Rabi harvest.
The jovial mood is expressed by performing Bhangra, a Punjabi folk dance. Fairs are held all over the countryside. The Rabi crop is harvested and sold and the farmer is in the mood to spend. Many farmers buy cattle on this day. Money is spent lavishly on colourful clothes and turbans and for merrymaking. Shops are loaded with clothes, bangles, household articles, variety of toys and food items.
The day is special also because it was on this auspicious day in 1699 that the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh founded the Sikh brotherhood of Khalsa. Thus for the Sikhs, Baisakhi is their foundation day. To commemorate this day, people visit Gurudvaras (Sikh temples) and listen to Shabad Kirtans (religious songs) and discourses. The Holy Book - the Guru Granth Sahib is read aloud and then carried out in a procession. Mock duels and bands playing religious tunes are part of the processions.
The festival falls in the Hindu month of Chaitra. Vaishakh the month after this is believed to be a sacred month for ritual bath. People bathe in sacred tanks and rivers in the morning and initiate the month long ‘Vaishakh Snan’. Pilgrimages to Badrinath and other holy shrines in the North also commence on this day.
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