50 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: worshippers descend steps to reach the shrine, effacing the ego before meeting the Guru, and the scripture enthroned inside is open to all with no restrictions.

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

Jay-Z joined a 2003 remix that charted highly in North America and Australia; the original had already topped the singles charts in Italy and Wallonia and sold an estimated 10 million copies.

Which river goddess is believed to have descended from heaven on Vaisakhi, a day of ritual bathing?

Ganga, the Ganges, is believed to have come down from Svarga on Vaisakhi, 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, called the 1919 Amritsar massacre 'unutterably monstrous'?

Winston Churchill condemned the shooting as 'unutterably monstrous', and on 8 July 1920 the House of Commons voted 247 to 37 against Dyer.

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

Vicky Kaushal won wide acclaim in a film that, delayed by the pandemic, skipped cinemas and premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 16 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' on the edge of the Shivalik Hills, was founded by the ninth guru and is where the last two gurus lived; it also hosts Hola Mohalla each spring.

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 Sanskrit phrase meaning what?

Pool of Nectar refers to the sacred tank surrounding the Golden Temple's sanctum; the city is also famed for its food and for making chessboards and chess pieces.

At what age was Guru Gobind Singh made leader of the Sikhs in 1675, after his father's death?

Nine: the boy guru was the only son of Guru Tegh Bahadur and Mata Gujri, and he went on to found Paonta Sahib in 1685 and Damdama Sahib in 1705.

Which Kerala festival, named from Sanskrit for 'equal', falls on the same mid-April day as Vaisakhi?

Vishu once marked the spring equinox, hence the name; it opens the month of Medam, the first of the Malabar solar calendar, on 14 or 15 April.

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, in the borough of Ealing, had 20,843 Sikhs at the 2021 census, and its nagar kirtan falls on a Sunday a week or two before Vaisakhi itself.

Which British monarch visited Jallianwala Bagh in 1997 and stood in a 30-second silence there?

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, 'I bow to thee, Mother', frames the flame burning under a domed meditation area in the garden, which a committee bought in 1923 for 565,000 rupees.

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

Puthandu follows the spring equinox and lands on or about 14 April, celebrated by the Tamil diaspora from Myanmar and South Africa to Canada.

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 crop season, whose Arabic-derived name means 'spring'?

Rabi crops such as wheat and barley are sown in winter and reaped in spring across the subcontinent; the complementary kharif season follows.

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.

One of India's biggest Vaisakhi fairs is held in which Uttarakhand town, also a Kumbh Mela site?

Haridwar hosts the Kumbh Mela every 12 years at Har Ki Pauri, the ghat where legend says drops of the elixir of immortality fell from a pitcher.

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, and later sources read his invitation as a signal 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 is performed by female dancers to rhythmic clapping while elders sing?

Giddha is the women's dance usually billed as bhangra's counterpart; it needs no dhol, the dancers clapping in a circle while a lead singer's boli is taken up by the ring.

The equal parts of flour, ghee and sugar in karah parshad, the gurdwara sweet, emphasise what?

Equality of men and women is written into the recipe, which also takes double the quantity of water; the halva is also called deg, literally 'cooking pot'.

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, four decades after a trust was formed in 1920 to build a memorial.

Who, in February 2013, became the first serving British prime minister to visit Jallianwala Bagh?

David Cameron laid a wreath 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 received royal assent in November 2018, making Canada the first country with a Sikh Heritage Month.

Vancouver's Vaisakhi parade, first held in 1979, holds which distinction in the city?

Largest single-day festival in Vancouver is the parade's standing, with neighbouring Surrey and Abbotsford staging their own celebrations each April.

From 2013 which country gave Sikh civil servants Vaisakhi off, though it is not a public holiday?

Malaysia announced the concession under prime minister Najib Razak as part of efforts to promote integration among its ethnic and religious groups.

Which country uses the Bikram Sambat as its official civil calendar, with Vaisakh as first month?

Nepal uses the solar version for general civil purposes, whereas in India the Vikram Samvat serves only religious dates and starts its year with Chaitra instead.

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

Account ledger: the custom, haal khata, clears out the old books, and the traditional ledgers came with red covers and white pages.

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, gold 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 is a tropical solar one, and Vaisakhi itself is pinned to a constant 14 April.

Despite Vaisakhi's importance, the 2003 Nanakshahi calendar began its year on 14 March with which month?

Chet opens the year, with 1 Chet fixed at 14 March in the original 2003 version; the SGPC's 2010 and 2014 revisions made the month starts movable again to track the Bikrami calendar.

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, also called Maha Bishuba Sankranti, is the mid-April new year of which Indian state?

Odisha marks the day as the first of the solar month of Mesa in the Odia calendar, the same sun-into-Aries 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 stands on the hill from which the guru addressed the crowd from a tent's entryway; its sister seats include the Akal Takht and Damdama Sahib.

Bhangra is held to have its purest form in which historical Punjab district, now in Pakistan?

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, first staged at Jessore in 1986 and taken up by Dhaka's fine-arts students in 1989, was retitled Boishakhi Shobhajatra in 2026; its giant replicas of birds, fish and folk-tale figures draw thousands.

The Bikrami calendar, long used by Sikhs, runs roughly how many years ahead of the Gregorian year?

57 years, because the era's epoch is 57 BCE; from January to the spring new year the gap is only 56, which is why Vaisakhi 2026 opened the Bikrami year 2083.

Who proposed a separate Sikh calendar in the 1960s, the basis of the one the SGPC adopted in 2003?

Pal Singh Purewal designed a sidereal-year calendar that Punjab's Sikh institutions adopted in the 1990s, with a committee tweaking it to fit the tropical Gregorian year.