Sikh Festival of Unity

Today is one of our favorite days during the year. We look forward to today, like a young child anticipates Christmas. Today is the Sikh Festival. We enjoy eating our way home from Church. The generosity is overwhelming. We couldn't walk more than 10 steps without someone encouraging us to eat food. If we refused, they push a plate towards your hands anyway. A polite refusal is NOT something they understand in their culture. We have gotten used to this over the years, and come prepared to share in the meal.

Another reason we love the Sikh festival is we enjoy participating in a cultural event. We like experiencing new things and are trying to understand people that come from a different culture than our own.

We love watching the beautiful colours and faces that pass by us. The crowds are enormous. People come from Surrey, Vancouver and all over the Fraser Valley to take part in this festival. The crowds, along with a few floats, walk from the Sikh Temple, to Rotary Stadium and back again.

One thing we find particularly interesting is the reverence they have for their Holy Book. They purify the street with "Holy Water" before the float carrying their Holy Book can grace the street. No one may pass over the cleansed spot until the Holy Book has passed by. This year, we were pleasantly surprised to have this man pictured with Dan (Gurvan???), ask if we would like an explanation of the festival. We agreed. He explained that years ago(404 years!), the head Gurus, (those at the top of the caste system) decided that there should no longer be a caste system. No one should be considered above or below anyone else. They shall all be one. They are all equals now, and thus separated from the Hindu religion and formed the Sikh religion. This festival celebrates the fact that the "city is all one."

We found this to be very similar to the Christian worldview that we are all equals (neither Jew nor Greek etc), and that we are one in the Spirit. What a day that would be if the city was all "one in the Spirit." We found it fascinating that one woman tried to explain the festival in Christian terms. "Its like your Bible, our Holy Book." When we asked what her Holy Book was called, she kept relaying information back to us in terms we could understand. (Talk about cultural relevance!)

Overall it was a fantastic experience! We learned a lot, enjoyed great food and watched a cultural festival. We got to talk with many different people, both old and young. We are already anticipating next years event!