Sikh community together again for celebration

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This article was published 04/09/2022 (1118 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thousands from Manitoba’s Sikh community took to the streets Sunday afternoon to hold their first Nagar Kirtan parade since the COVID-19 pandemic touched down in the province.

The parade, a religious procession meant to celebrate the anniversary of Sikh holy scriptures, has existed across the world for centuries and in Winnipeg for about 20 years, Sikh Society of Manitoba vice-president Jasdeep Singh Devgan said. That came to a sudden halt in 2019, when the pandemic forced the massive event to shut down.

“Nobody expected to not do this for two years,” he said.

“We thought maybe the one year we’d miss, and we attempted to try to start planning in 2021, but unfortunately, just the way things were going, it wasn’t feasible. So we’re glad to be able to do it now.”

The parade began on Memorial Boulevard Sunday afternoon, and marchers made their way down York Avenue, turned on Garry Street and back up to Memorial Park, with police blocking off parts of the walk so participants could travel safely. Those living downtown could hear kirtan — essentially hymns directly from the holy scripture — played over speakers from a parade float. Later, dhadi — folk ballads about Sikh history — were played at Memorial Park.

“I think it’s an opportunity for us to share with the community as well, which is why we always invite folks to take part and kind of join in… I guess for a lot of folks who haven’t seen this event before, it’s something new to them,” Devgan said.

Some visitors chose to stay at Memorial Park, where dozens of vendors offered treats from a range of cultures. The 52-year-old organization hopes to keep organizing the yearly event for as long as possible, ramping up the scale every time.

“You don’t really realize how much you’re going to miss it until you haven’t done it for two years. And so being able to do it again, you’re kind of flexing some muscles that you’ve built over the years for this event, and getting a feeling again of putting this together,” he said. “It is a great feeling to be together as a community again.”

The return to form was welcome by friends Manjod Uppal and Jaswinder Singh, both newcomers to Winnipeg — Uppal arrived in 2017 and Singh in 2019.

It wasn’t easy for 23-year-old Uppal to arrive in a new city with a pandemic looming, and the chance to connect with his community on a large scale has been both empowering and emotional.

“It was pretty much depressing. Still, we could go to our worship places so we could meet people, we had some events there, but not as big as this one. So we’re happy today to have this big event in downtown,” he said.

“We feel proud. We brought our culture, our religion, everything here in Canada.”

“Everyone is here, everybody’s happy, and they can enjoy free food,” Singh, 30, said.

It’s not just a big gathering event for Manitoba’s Sikh community, Devgan said — he hoped those who may be curious about the flurry of colour and music across downtown would visit and learn about the culture.

“Sometimes we, in any community, we maybe have a tendency to silo ourselves, but I think this is an opportunity, at least from our perspective, to bring this to the rest of the community and share the culture, and faith, and a little bit of a cuisine as well,” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

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