This past weekend in Surrey, over 700,000 people attended the Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan. Vaisakhi is an annual event that marks the beginning of the New Year according to the Sikh calendar and also commemorates the formation of Khalsa Panth by Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1699. This parade is an annual event that many people come down to the lower mainland to attend. Even my parents came all the way from Kamloops for the weekend to attend the Nagar Kirtan.
Surrey Nagar Kirtan 2023. What a pleasure.🙏🏼
Ps it was an honour to meet all my fans! Yikes love you all😄💙#surreynagarkirtan2023 #whatapleasure #goodday #vaisakhi #ck #combatkaur pic.twitter.com/hKh0LTaPI9
— Combat Kaur (@CombatKaur) April 23, 2023
There were many notable figures in attendance as well such as Premier David Eby, the Vancouver Canucks mascot Fin, Abbotsford Canucks player Arshdeep Bain and many others as well.
The parade even began with prayers of respected aboriginals of Canada.
Surrey Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan starting with prayers of respected aboriginals of Canada. Chief and his wife performing prayers🙏🏻
#surreybc #surrey #surreyvaisakhinagarkirtan #aboriginal pic.twitter.com/D3PvwKieNB
— CarraDeShaukeen (@CarraDeShaukeen) April 22, 2023
The lower mainland has a very large Sikh community and events like these show exactly why that is. As someone who is Sikh myself, events like these are incredibly significant to have. Many Sikh people who are around my age or younger likely have parents that immigrated from India and raised their kids in Canada. For me, growing up in Canada has been fantastic and I’ve loved every minute of it, but that also comes with some challenges with learning my parent’s culture. Although I try to learn as much as I can, there is still so much I don’t know about my parent’s culture and it sometimes makes me feel disconnected from my roots.
However, events like these really help me feel more connected with my roots because I can understand more of the history of where my parents came from and why this is so important to them. On top of that, it’s a great way for people who aren’t Sikh to understand our culture and get to know it better. You can learn so much from absorbing culture with the people who are in it and see exactly why it’s so important to them. And that’s exactly why events such as the Vaisakhi parade are so important.
It would be great to see more events like these for different cultures as well, which there are for a few, but perhaps there needs to be a few more. Vancouver is incredibly multicultural so we should embrace that and celebrate it as much as we can.
Events like the Vaisakhi are important for many different reasons and it’s a constant reminder to remember your roots and enjoy the diversity in the lower mainland.