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| Guests attending the Fraser Valley Indo-Canadian Business Association's annual free Vaisakhi lunch load up their trays with tasty fare after learning a little about the Sikh faith. Photograph by: Rochelle Baker, Times |
Members from every facet of the Abbotsford community came together to celebrate and learn about Vaisakhi at the Khalsa Diwan Society temple on Friday.
As many as 400 individuals from non-profit, business, political and faith-based organizations attended the Fraser Valley Indo-Canadian Business Association Vaisakhi luncheon at the society's gurdwara on South Fraser Way.
The luncheon is a an annual intercultural event that invites the larger community to come learn more about the Sikh faith and participate in Vaisakhi celebrations, said Satwinder Bains, director at the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley.
The festival celebrates the upcoming harvest, new beginnings, and the reaffirmation of an individual's faith and contribution to their congregation, said Bains, who was the keynote speaker at the event.
"It's a great way to get people in the doors [of the gurdwara]. It is a religious institution, but a warm welcoming one," she said, adding the event gives people a chance to get better insight into the Sikh community and faith.
"It's not that people don't want to come [to the gurdwara], but just that they haven't been invited before," she said.
The lunch was a particularly important this year as it is also the centennial of the Abbotsford's historic Gur Sikh Temple, Bains added.
"We want to share that we have 100-year history and are well-integrated in the community of Abbotsford," she said.
"We are one of the communities working in the community at large and that contributes in many ways."
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