Vaisakhi (also spelt Baisakhi) is one of the most important dates in the Sikh calendar, being the New Year festival and the commemoration of 1699, the year Sikhism became a collective faith. It is celebrated on 14 April.
Vaisakhi is celebrated in many English towns with processions called nagar kirtan. Nagar means ‘town’ and kirtan is the singing of the hymns from the Guru Grath Sahib, the Sikh holy book. The photos on this and the next page are of the Vaisakhi procession held on 23 April 2006 that started and finished at the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Cumberland Road, Reading, stopping for lunch at the Ramgarhia Sikh Centre in London Road, Wokingham on the way.
The procession is led by two drummers and two men handing out sweets to everyone they meet (people at bus stops, drivers in their cars, people watching the procession). Then come a group of sweepers, who pick up rubbish in the path of the procession, sweep away the grit and spray the ground.
