f you grew up watching Bollywood movies or Indian TV soaps, you would most certainly be familiar with festivals like Holi, Diwali, Lori and Vaisakhi, and how these festivals are about pageantry of colours, dhol, bhangra beats and luddi dances. But there’s a lot more to these events than meets the eye, and you’ll know that only if you look at how the people from Sikh and Hindu communities in the city are celebrating.

Every year in April, a number of Sikhs cross the border to partake in the festivities of Vaisakhi. They arrive in Lahore, and then head out to Nankana Sahib, Hasanabdal and Kartarpur on what must be called religious pilgrimage. This is the time when we hear the most about the little, little events that are organised around the main festival, in order to promote peace and harmony in the society.

Last week, the city received hordes of these yatris who were here on a three-day celebration of the 324^th Khalsa birthday that culminated at Gurdwara Panja Sahib, in Hasanabdal.

For the uninitiated, Vaisakhi is celebrated with full zeal in northern India by Sikhs and Hindus every year as per the Punjabi calendar. Also known as the harvest festival, it has been around for the longest time. In Indian — as well as Pakistani — Punjab, it marks a significant time for farmers who have successfully readied the wheat crops for harvest. They are now expecting rewards for their efforts.

On the Indian side, those celebrating the festival sport colourful clothes, sing folk songs and put up carnivals in their villages.

“While the harvest festival is of equal significance in both India and Pakistan, it is not celebrated on the same scale in both the countries.” — Amarnath Randhawa, a Lahore-based human rights activist and member of the Pakistan Hindu Temple Management Committee.

Besides being the harvest festival, Vaisakhi has religious significance for the Sikh community. Pawan Singh Arora, from Nankana Sahib, an alumnus of Hubert Humphrey Fellowship, tells TNS: “In 1699, Guru Gobind Rai, the 10^th guru, in a congregation on Vaisakhi, came out of the tent carrying a sword and asked the participants as to whoever from the sangat was ready to dedicate their life in the service of mankind. The first five who stepped forward were from different ethnic backgrounds. They surrendered themselves and became the panj pyaray (or five beloved).

“Once Guru had given them the blessings of Amrit, he asked them to do a repeat of the ceremony, and then took the blessings of Amrit from the panj pyaray himself. By doing so, he removed all sense of discrimination and introduced the khalsa, a soldier and saint at the same time. Since then, the day has come to have religious value for the Sikh community. The five beloved disciples dedicated their life in the service of Sikhs, on the direction of Guru Gobind Rai.”

Arora, who is quite vocal on religious freedom and minority rights, also happens to be the first gazetted officer from the Sikh community in Pakistan.

or Amarnath Randhawa, a Lahore-based human rights activist and member of the Pakistan Hindu Temple Management Committee, a relatively new organising body set up under the Ministry of Religious Affairs, “Religious celebrations in Pakistan are limited to gurdwaras. You won’t see the festivities openly, as the population of Sikhs and Hindus is small.

“While the harvest festival is of equal significance in both India and Pakistan, it is not celebrated on the same scale in both the countries,” he says.

It is unfortunate that a country known for its agriculture does not celebrate Vaisakhi as it is done across the border.

The writer is a freelance journalist