Several hundred Sikh men, women and children, chanting and playing traditional instruments, will parade along Morrison Road on Sunday at noon as part of their weekend-long celebration of a global Sikh festival. The parade will be only the second of its kind – the first coming last year as about 100 to 150 local Sikh families for the first time publicly celebrated Vaisakhi day.
Founded in what is now Pakistan around the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, Sikhism is a monotheistic religion – the world’s fifth largest.
It incorporates elements of Islam and Hinduism.
Sikh men and women parading Sunday will be in traditional clothing, led by five men of exemplary character, and following a decorated float bearing their sacred Scripture, the Adi Granth.
Beginning from their temple, or gurdwara, at 8433 Morrison Road, they will parade along Morrison Road in both directions, between Crowder Boulevard and Bundy Road, said Navdeep Singh, president of the local association of Sikhs, the Sikh Society of the South.
The parade is part of a larger community observance centered on the gurdwara that begins Friday.
Sikhs are distinctive in their appearance and dress. Conscientious Sikhs are unshaven, and men wear turbans. They wear a comb, a silver bracelet, a distinctive undergarment, and carry a small ceremonial sword symbolizing their role as protectors of the weak.
Men and women who reach a level of spiritual maturity are baptized and publicly recognized as Khalsa.
Singh said all Sikhs are expected to work toward that goal.
Vaisakhi day celebrates the event in 1699 in which the tenth Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Sikh, established the rite of baptism and created Khalsa.