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Baisakhi is festival of North India, more prominently in Punjab.
Baisakhi marks the arrival of the harvesting season. The festival always falls on April 14 and marks the beginning of the solar year. Just before the festival the farmer returns home with his bumper crop, the fruit of his whole year's hard labour.
This festival is in celebration to thank God for good harvest for the year and coming year also. Early morning of Baiskhai, people take dip in holy rivers. Cries of "Jatta aai Baisakhi" rent the skies as the people of Punjab attired in their best clothes break into the Bhangra dance to express their joy.
The dancers and drummers challenge each other to continue the dance. The scenes of sowing, harvesting, winnowing and gathering of crops are expressed through zestful movements of the body to the accompaniment of ballads. Both men and women, celebrate the day with Bhangra and Gidda.
Fairs are organized at various places in Punjab, where besides other recreational activities, wrestling bouts are also held. The occasion is celebrated with great gusto at Talwandi Sabo, where Guru Gobind Singh stayed for nine months and completed the recompilation of the Guru Granth Sahib.
The Sikhs celebrate this day by visiting gurudwaras and distributing kada prasad. Processions led by the Panj Piaras or the five religious men are taken out. Kirtans and recital of passages from the Granth Sahib are also organized in gurdwaras, where people line up to receive the delicious prasad and perform kar sewa-that is, offering help in the daily chores of the gurdwara. The most sacred pilgrimage centres is Amritsar, where Golden Temple is situated.
Relatives and friends are welcomed and offered lassi and sweets. This festival brings bright hopes for the future.
Baisakhi -- Legends Baisakhi has a special meaning for the Sikhs. Guru Amar Das had first institutionalized Baisakhi in 1567 as one of the special days when all Sikhs would gather to receive the guru's blessings at Goindwal.
On this day in 1699, their tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, organized the order of the Khalsa. He discontinued the tradition of Gurus in Sikhism by declaring the Granth Sahib to be the eternal Guru of all Sikhs. To form the Khalsa Panth he asked his followers to be ready to lay down their lives to save others. Five volunteers of five different castes were made the Panj Piaras, who would lead the rest.
Guru Arjan Dev was martyred by the Muslim rulers who, in barbaric cruelty, threw him alive into a cauldron of boiling oil, on this day.
Again, on this day in 1875, Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj - a reformed sect of Hindus who are devoted to the Vedas for spiritual guidance and have discarded idol worship.
This day is of immense religious import to the Buddhists because Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment or Nirvana under the Mahabodhi tree in the town of Gaya on this auspicious day. The day is also known, as Buddha Purnima is some parts of the country.
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