Local Sikhs join a parade at the Riverfront Festival Plaza.
May 21, 2013: Windsor's Festival Plaza was a sea of mostly yellow and marigolds on Sunday as hundreds of Sikhs gathered to celebrate the 314th birthday of their religion.
Windsor's Sikh community celebrates Khalsa Day each spring with a parade, music and prayers.
"We are grateful to the ... general community for joining hands with us today," said Harjinder Singh Kandola, a member of the organizing committee from the Sikh Cultural Society of Metropolitan Windsor.
Kandola estimated between 2,500 and 3,000 people attended the parade and festivities, including Sikhs from Michigan, Ohio and other parts of South-western Ontario. Windsor's Khalsa Day parade is the only one of its kind in the region, he said.
After a blessing at the Festival Plaza mid-morning, the parade progressed along Riverside Drive and through the downtown, led by a float decorated in flowers from which religious leaders sang hymns. Sikhs celebrate Khalsa Day by singing praise in the streets, Kondola said, and spreading the word of universal brotherhood and equality.
Local Sikhs join a parade celebrating Khalsa Day on Riverside Drive East in downtown Windsor Sunday.
Other floats filled with children and women carried signs explaining the principles of the faith such as the disciplined and personal meditation about God and serving the community selflessly.
Yellow is traditionally worn on Khalsa Day and is the colour of bravery. A special pudding is also shared on Khalsa Day, which people eat as a blessing, Kondola said.
The parade included a bagpipe band in full kilt which Kondola said helps connect the mainstream community with the special Sikh celebration.
Windsor's Sikh community numbers between 1,200 and 1,500. Official data from Statistics Canada shows 1,900 people in the Windsor area indicated they were Sikh.
The latest National Household Survey data shows about 455,000 respondents identified themselves as Sikh in Canada. It is one of the growing religious groups in the country - thanks in part to immigration - compared to other faiths, such as Christianity, where numbers are either steady or shrinking.
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