The fifth of November is always a time for Sikhs all around the world to celebrate the foundations of their faith and the birthday of the key ideologue behind the religion, Guru Nanak, the first Guru. For many Sikhs in Asia, this time of year often sees a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Guru Nanak, Rai Bhoi di Tolevandi, a town approximately 30 miles from Lahore in Pakistan. | "The march is at least three to four miles long and with such a strong attendance it was quite literally an ocean of people." | | Marc Singh Jones, Guest Contributor |
This year celebrations within the Leicester Sikh community were greater than ever. The 19th of November saw the coming together of around 10,000-15,000 Sikhs in the form of an annual procession which marched from Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara on East Park Road, Evington, to the Guru Nanak Gurdwara on Holy Bones. The march is at least three to four miles long and with such a strong attendance it was quite literally an ocean of people. After witnessing the procession itself, it was time to take a trip to the Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara to find out more. Here I met with the secretary of the Gurdwara, Gurnam Singh and one of the Sikh committee representatives. This Gurdwara was perhaps the best place for gleaning information. The procession itself consists of a march with homemade floats, the float at the head of the procession being one which carries the Sikh holy book, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
The other floats on show displayed various emblems of the Sikh faith, often all or one of the five signs of the Khalsa. Gurnam Singh offered plenty of information as we discussed the Sikh community present in Leicester. The Gurdwara itself services thousands of congregants every week, some of whom travel from as far away as Kettering. The actual space of the Gurdwara makes it spatially the second biggest temple in the UK. Gurnam says the Sikh community was established in the mid 1950s and has "consistently grown in size every year" with a big boom coming in the late 1980s. The annual procession has been running since the 1980s and is close to having its 20th birthday. Gurnam stressed the celebrations that took place all over the globe but conceded that this type of celebration, Gurpurabs, were not all that common in the UK although some regions have retained them.
Leicester's procession is renowned and with increasing numbers attending every year it seems that it will continue to grow and prosper. The procession was extremely successful as it is every year, and it was a time to reflect both on faith and the origins of Sikhism; however it did also have other social values. For local taxi driver, Manny, "it was a day we could all look forward to and an extremely good day out for all the family." The next celebration will happen next year in April. It is the even bigger event of Vaishaki, which is a celebration of the creation of the Khalsa and the emblems of the faith. This has had an estimated 30,000 people attending, a presence which is an ongoing testimonial to the broad, multicultural dimension of Leicester. | 
