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Holidays and Festivals Around the World
Sikhism
Sikhism is one of the world’s youngest major religions. It was founded by Guru Nanak Dev in 1469. Sikhism was established when India was being torn apart by many factors including the caste system and religious fanaticism. Guru Nanak Dev tried to bring peace by teaching that there was only one God of many names, and that the name of God is Truth. There are currently around 23 million Sikhs worldwide.
There are ten Sikh Gurus who taught the path established by Guru Nanak Dev. The holy book of the Sikhs is called Guru Granth Shahib and is a compilation of the writings of the first ten Sikh Gurus and well as some writing of Muslims and Hindus. The holy book is considered the 11th and final Guru.
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| January 5 | Birthday of Guru Gobind Singh |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| January 31 | Birthday of Guru Har Rai |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| March 22 | Hola Mohalla (Lunar Calendar) |
Hola Mohalla is a festival to celebrate and remember the valor of the Sikh in battling their enemies, and to demonstrate the martial skills in a simulated battle. | |
| April 13 | Vaisakhi |
Celebrates the founding of Khalsa by the tenth Guru in 1699. | |
| April 14 | Birthday of Guru Nanak |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| April 14 | Hola Mohalla |
Hola Mohalla is a festival to celebrate and remember the valor of the Sikh in battling their enemies, and to demonstrate the martial skills in a simulated battle. | |
| April 18 | Birthday of Guru Angad Dev |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| April 18 | Birthday of Guru Tegh Bahadur |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| May 2 | Birthday of Guru Arjan Dev |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| May 23 | Birthday of Guru Amar Das |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| June 16 | Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| July 5 | Birthday of Guru Hargobind (Nanakshahi Calander) | Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| July 23 | Birthday of Guru Har Krishen |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| September 1 | First Consecration of the Guru Granth Sahib | Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| October 9 | Birthday of Guru Ram Das |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| November 9 | Birthday of Guru Tegh Bahadur |
Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
| November 9 | Martyrdom of GuruTegh Bahadur (Nanakshahi Calander) | Please see discription of Sikh Gurus below | |
*Holidays in bold are the most important holidays. |
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Guru |
Date of Birth & Death |
Brief Synopsis of the Guru's Life |
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Guru Nanak Dev |
April 15, 1469 September 22, 1539 |
Guru Nanak Dev is the founder of the Sikh Religion. He was born to a simple Hindu family. He was an unusually gifted and bright child. When he was older he traveled extensively to spread the word of God. When he retired from traveling he led the life of a peasant on a farm where he gave all his excess food to the poor. | |
Guru Angad Dev |
March 31, 1504 March 28, 1552 |
Guru Angad Dev was the second Guru. He met Guru Nanak Dev later on in life. When he met him he renounced his belief in Hinduism, his devotion to Sikism prompted Guru Nanak Dev to take him on as the second Guru. He carried on bringing Sikism to people after Guru Nanak Dev retired, as well as introducing a new alphabet, promoting education, both physical and mental. He also wrote the first biography about Guru Nanak Dev. | |
Guru Amar Das |
May 5, 1479 September 1, 1574 |
Guru Amar Das was the third Guru. He didn’t convert to Sikhism till very late in life, he was 73 when he became a Guru. Even though he became involved so late in life he did great things for the new religion. He promoted equal rights for women, elimination of castes, he set up free kitchens at all of the Sikh Temples, and he also sent out many devotees to promote the religion. | |
Guru Ram Das |
September 24, 1534 September 1, 1581 |
Guru Ram Das was the fourth Guru. He was born to a very poor family, but he was always very pious. One day he met a group of pilgrims going to see Guru Nanak Dev and decided to follow along with them. He was very impressed by the Guru and decided to stay behind and become a disciple. His hard work and devotion while serving Guru Nanak Dev impressed the Guru Nan so much that he offered him the hand of his daughter Bibi Bhani. They had three sons, one of whom went on to become a Guru. When Guru Nanak Dev passed on he named Guru Ram Das his successor. He was also the founder of the most holy city for the Sikhs now known as Amritsar. | |
Guru Arjan Dev |
April 15, 1563 May 30, 1606 |
Guru Arjan Dev was the youngest son of Guru Ram Das, and was appointed by him to be his successor. His main accomplishments were that he had all Sikhs donated 1/10th of their earnings to charity, in a great part to help with the public works projects in the holy city of Amritsar. He also wrote the first edition of the Holy Guru Granth Sahib. This book is different then any other holy text, because not only does it include the works of the Sikh Gurus, but it also has works of Muslim and Hindu saints, which the Guru Arjan Dev considered to be consistent with Sikhism. He also got the Emperor Akbar to remove the people of Punjab from the annual taxes because of the severe drought that they were having in that region. Guru Arjan Dev was the first of the Sikh Gurus to become a martyr. He was killed because the new Emperor, Jahangir, wanted to cultivate favor with the Muslim clergy, and they wanted the Muslim verses in the Holy Guru Granth Sahib to be removed, and he refused to remove them. | |
Guru Hargobind |
June 14, 1595 March 3, 1644 |
Guru Hargobind was the fifth Guru and only child of Guru Arjan Dev. He became a Guru at the young age of 15, just days before his father’s martyrdom. He spent his youth being educated and in preparation for becoming a Guru. He also had the foresight to see that the Sikhs would soon have to defend their freedom and religion, and that it could not be done by peaceful means. Guru Hargobind prepared his devotees physically to defend themselves in case of war, but was careful not to neglect their souls either. The Guru did not want to fight, but he knew it was necessary to protect Sikhism. He managed to befriend the Emperor Jahangir and to save his life when they were out hunting. Although the gratitude of the emperor didn’t completely save him from the plotting of Chandu Shah, the man who had his father killed, it did prevent him from being killed and in the end having many political prisoners released and Chandu Shah’s plotting put to a permanent end. | |
Guru Har Rai |
January 16, 1630 October 6, 1661 |
Guru Har Rai was the grandson of the eldest son of Guru Hargobind. He became a Guru at the age of 14 shortly before his grandfather passed on. He was very sensitive in nature, but still kept up the armed tradition of Guru Hargobind, although there were no significant armed conflicts during his life. | |
Guru Harkrishan |
July 7, 1656 March 30, 1664 |
Guru Harkrishan was the eighth guru. He was the second son of Guru Har Rai and became a guru at the very young age of five. His older brother was jealous of his position and concocted a plan to make him go to Delhi where he ended up catching small pox, although he did cure a great number of people of the disease. He died of small pox at the age of eight. | |
Guru Tegh Bahadur |
April 1, 1621 November 11, 1675 |
Guru Tegh Bahadur was the ninth guru. He was the youngest son of Guru Hargobind. He spent much of his life traveling around India spreading Sikhism. He sacrificed himself in order to protect all religions. He was tortured to death by Emperor Aurangzeb. | |
Guru Gobind Singh |
December 22, 1666 October 7, 1708 |
Guru Gobind Singh was the tenth and final Guru. He was the son of Guru Tegh Bahadur. As a child his father was thinking about all of the strife that was occurring around the country and musing how it could be solved when his son, Gobind Singh, came in the room and told his father "Grave are the burdens the earth bears. She will be redeemed only if a truly worthy person comes forward to lay down his head. Distress will then be expunged and happiness ushered in." "None could be worthier than yourself to make such a sacrifice,", so his father went to the capital to court death. He became a Guru at the young age of ten. He ended the line of people as Gurus by naming the book Guru Granth Sahib his successor. | |
Guru Granth Sahib |
September 1 |
Guru Granth Sahib is the everlasting Guru of the Sikhs. It is the scriptures of the Sikhs, and was originally compiled by the fifth Siri Arjan Dev. Each copy of this book contains exactly 1430 pages. There are 5894 Shabads (hymns or holy verses) in each copy. The Shabads were written by the the ten Gurus as well as Muslims and Hindus. | |
Last Updated: 18-Mar-2008
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