48 Fun Facts About Vaisakhi

What did Guru Gobind Singh, sword drawn, ask volunteers at the 1699 Vaisakhi gathering to sacrifice?

Their head: the Guru called for a volunteer willing to sacrifice his head, and the five who stepped forward one by one became the first members of the Khalsa.

Guru Arjan built the Golden Temple lower than the city around it to emphasise which virtue?

Humility: Guru Arjan set the shrine on a lower level so that even the humblest had to step down to enter, and gave it entrances on all four sides to show it was open to every caste and creed.

Which US rapper featured on the 2003 remix of Panjabi MC's bhangra hit 'Mundian To Bach Ke'?

Jay-Z rapped on the 2003 remix, released as 'Beware of the Boys'; Panjabi MC had built the 1998 original on the bassline of the Knight Rider TV theme, and it topped the charts in Italy.

Which river goddess, in one tradition, descended from heaven on Vaisakhi, a day of ritual bathing?

Ganga, the Ganges, came down from Svarga on Vaisakhi in one telling, so Hindus bathe in sacred rivers, visit temples and give charity of water pitchers and seasonal fruit.

Whose 1801 coronation as Maharaja of the Sikh Empire was timed to coincide with Vaisakhi?

Ranjit Singh was proclaimed Maharaja on 12 April 1801, with Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendant of the first guru, conducting the coronation that created a unified Sikh state.

Which future UK PM, then War Secretary, told the Commons in 1920 the Amritsar massacre was 'a monstrous event'?

Winston Churchill called the shooting 'a monstrous event' standing 'in singular and sinister isolation'; MPs then backed the government's removal of Dyer by 230 votes to 129, though the House of Lords took his side.

Who played the lead in 'Sardar Udham', the 2021 Shoojit Sircar film about avenging Jallianwala Bagh?

Vicky Kaushal took a role first meant for Irrfan Khan, who withdrew because of ill health; delayed by the pandemic, the film skipped cinemas and premiered on Amazon Prime Video in October 2021.

Which country fixed its national calendar so Pohela Boishakh, its new year, always falls on 14 April?

Bangladesh fixed its national calendar so the new year always lands on 14 April, while India's West Bengal and Tripura mark it a day later in most years.

Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa in which Punjab town, set up by his father near the Sutlej?

Anandpur Sahib, the 'city of bliss', was founded by the ninth guru; his son later started Hola Mohalla there, a spring festival of mock battles and martial displays.

Who leads a Vaisakhi nagar kirtan procession, robed in saffron ahead of the scripture's float?

The Panj Pyare, five Sikhs standing for the first initiates of 1699, walk ahead of the float bearing the Guru Granth Sahib, with food handed out from floats that follow.

The city of Amritsar takes its name from the Amrit Sarovar, a phrase of Sanskrit origin meaning what?

Pool of Nectar is the sacred tank that Guru Ram Das ordered dug when he founded the city in 1577; the Golden Temple was later raised on an island at its centre.

Which Mughal emperor had Guru Tegh Bahadur executed in 1675, leaving his young son Gobind as the tenth guru?

Aurangzeb had the ninth guru executed in Delhi, in Sikh tradition for refusing to convert to Islam; the boy who succeeded him went on to found the Khalsa on Vaisakhi 1699.

Which Kerala new-year festival falls on the same mid-April day as Vaisakhi?

Vishu opens with the Vishukkani: rice, fruit, coins and golden laburnum blossoms are set out so that they are the first thing the family sees on new year's morning.

Gatka, the Sikh martial art shown off at Vaisakhi processions, simulates sword fighting with what?

Wooden sticks of 91 to 107 cm stand in for swords, paired with a shield called the phari; the name gatka may come from a Sanskrit word for 'mace'.

The Nishan Sahib, the Sikh flag, is washed each Vaisakhi with water and which other liquid?

Milk and water wash the flag every April, and the pole itself is wrapped in a fabric cover called a chola topped with a steel Khanda.

Which London district, known as 'Little Punjab', holds its Vaisakhi procession a week or two early?

Southall drew Punjabi migrants from the 1950s through a nearby rubber factory whose manager had served alongside Sikh soldiers; its nagar kirtan falls on a Sunday a week or two before Vaisakhi.

Which British monarch stood in a 30-second silence at Jallianwala Bagh during a state visit to India?

Elizabeth II paid her respects on 14 October 1997 during a state visit, a day after calling the massacre 'a distressing example' of a difficult shared past at a Delhi banquet; no apology was offered.

Which patriotic phrase accompanies the eternal flame at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial?

Vande Mataram, 'Mother, I bow to thee', marks the Amar Jyoti flame under a domed meditation area; the song became a rallying cry of the independence movement, and the colonial government made singing it in public a crime.

Which Tamil new-year festival, opening the month of Chittirai, falls on the same day as Vaisakhi?

Puthandu opens the month of Chittirai on or about 14 April; families clean the house, set out a tray of fruit, flowers and auspicious items, and share a mango pachadi that mixes sweet, sour and bitter flavours.

Choul Chnam Thmey, a three-day holiday sharing Vaisakhi's solar new-year date, is celebrated where?

Cambodia's Khmer new year starts on 13 or 14 April, when the harvest is in and farmers enjoy the fruits of their labour before the rains arrive.

Vaisakhi celebrates the harvest of which winter-sown crop season, whose name comes from a word for 'spring'?

Rabi comes from the Arabic for 'spring', the season when its wheat and barley are reaped; the kharif crops that follow take their name from the Arabic for 'autumn'.

Hindu Vaisakhi custom calls for daan (charity) of water pitchers, seasonal fruit and what else?

Hand fans, water pitchers and seasonal fruit make up the daan considered mandatory for the day, given alongside temple visits and bathing in sacred rivers.

Which Sufi saint of Lahore is said to have laid the Golden Temple's foundation stone for Guru Arjan?

Mian Mir belonged to the Qadiri order; the story first appears in later accounts and is unproven, but it is told as a sign that the Sikh tradition welcomed people of every faith.

Which Afghan ruler had the Golden Temple blown up with gunpowder in 1762?

Ahmad Shah Durrani, also called Abdali, had first attacked Amritsar and desecrated the shrine in 1757, and the Sikhs rebuilt it after each assault.

Guru Gobind Singh prepared the first amrit in 1699 by stirring sweetened water with a sword in what?

An iron bowl held the water and sugar, stirred with a double-edged khanda while scripture was recited, and the initiates drank it in turn.

Which trade, alongside farmer, shopkeeper and tailor, was among the first five initiated in 1699?

Barber was the trade of one of the five beloved ones, who came from as far apart as Lahore, Gujarat and Karnataka, making the new order pointedly caste-blind.

Which Punjabi folk dance has women clapping out the rhythm in a circle, with no drum needed?

Giddha is often billed as the women's counterpart to bhangra; a lead singer recites a boli and the ring of dancers answers with the refrain, clapping the beat themselves.

Which gurdwara sweet, made from equal quantities of flour, sugar and ghee, is received in cupped hands?

Karah parshad is handed out towards the end of a gurdwara service to everyone present, and is always received in cupped hands as a gift from God.

Langar, the free meal served to all at Vaisakhi, was made a key institution by which third guru?

Amar Das required everyone, whatever their caste or class, to dine together, building on the kitchen the first guru had introduced around 1500.

Which president of India opened the Jallianwala Bagh memorial on 13 April 1961, with Nehru present?

Rajendra Prasad, India's first president, opened it on the massacre's 42nd anniversary; a trust set up in 1920 after a Congress resolution had bought the garden so that it could become a memorial.

Who became the first serving British prime minister to visit the Jallianwala Bagh memorial in Amritsar?

David Cameron laid a wreath in February 2013 and called the massacre 'a deeply shameful event in British history', but stopped short of an official apology.

What name uniting three faiths did the man who shot Michael O'Dwyer in 1940 give while in custody?

Ram Mohammad Singh Azad joined Hindu, Muslim and Sikh names to azad, 'free', as a statement of anti-colonial intent; he was convicted and hanged in July 1940.

Which Canadian province made April Sikh Heritage Month in 2013, on a bill by Jagmeet Singh?

Ontario moved first with Bill 52; a federal bill from MP Sukh Dhaliwal followed, making Canada the first country to mark a nationwide Sikh Heritage Month.

Which city near Vancouver stages a Vaisakhi parade counted among the largest outside India?

Surrey's parade has drawn crowds of more than 350,000, with families and businesses along the route serving free food to everyone who comes.

Which country gave its Sikh civil servants Vaisakhi off from 2013, in line with a drive for unity among its ethnic groups?

Malaysia's Sikhs are a small minority and Vaisakhi is not a public holiday there, so prime minister Najib Razak announced in 2012 that Sikh civil servants could take the day as leave.

On Pohela Boishakh, Bengali shopkeepers invite loyal customers, offer sweets and open a fresh what?

Account ledger: in the custom called haal khata, traders close the old year's books, ask customers in to settle old debts, and open a fresh ledger for the new year.

In Kerala's kaineettam custom on the mid-April new year, elders give children a small gift of what?

Pocket money from elders follows the morning's auspicious first sight of rice, coins and laburnum blossoms; families then wear new clothes and sit down to a feast.

Which dish is the first meal of Sri Lanka's mid-April new year, which shares Vaisakhi's solar date?

Kiribath, rice boiled in coconut milk, is cooked on a hearth the lady of the house lights at the dawn of the new year, then shared as the year's first meal.

The Sikh calendar the SGPC adopted in 2003 counts its years from which event?

Guru Nanak's birth in 1469 is the epoch; the calendar was devised to replace the Bikrami one that Sikhs shared with Hindus, marking the faith out as distinct.

Which of the Five Ks worn by Khalsa Sikhs is a steel bracelet?

Kara is the steel bracelet; with uncut hair, a comb, a sword and cotton undershorts it marks out members of the Khalsa, and wearing the same five symbols binds the community together.

The Khanda emblem pairs a double-edged sword and two crossed kirpans with which third element?

A chakkar, the circular throwing weapon, rings the central sword, while the two kirpans, named Miri and Piri, stand for temporal and spiritual sovereignty.

Pana Sankranti is the mid-April new year of which Indian state, home to Puri's Jagannath Temple?

Odisha marks the day as the first of the solar month of Mesa in the Odia calendar, the same solar turn that fixes Vaisakhi.

Which of Sikhism's five seats of authority marks the hill where the tenth guru's tent stood in 1699?

Kesgarh Sahib marks the hill where the guru spoke from a tent's entryway; it began as one of five forts he built to defend the town against the hill rajas and the Mughals.

Bhangra is traced to which historical Punjab district, now in Pakistan and famous for making footballs?

Sialkot and its neighbours Gurdaspur, Gujranwala, Gujrat and Shekhupura in the Majha region are bhangra's heartland, where farmers danced to welcome the harvest.

Staged bhangra took its modern form after which princely state's Maharaja requested a show in 1953?

Patiala also had Mohindra College running bhangra competitions in that decade, turning a farmers' dance into a choreographed stage form.

Which Dhaka dawn procession of giant bird and animal replicas was listed by UNESCO in 2016?

Mangal Shobhajatra began in 1989, when fine-arts students at Dhaka University, frustrated with life under military rule, wanted to bring people hope for a better future.

Vaisakhi marks the solar new year, the day the sun is held to enter which zodiac sign?

Aries, called Mesha in Sanskrit, is the sign whose start opens the Hindu solar year, which is why new-year festivals from Kerala to Assam fall on or beside Vaisakhi.

What does 'Khalsa', the name of the Sikh order founded at Vaisakhi 1699, mean?

The pure: the name comes through Persian from an Arabic word for 'pure', and the order was casteless from the start, its first five members drawn from different castes and regions.