{"id":4672,"date":"2010-04-26T16:35:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T16:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2010\/04\/26\/90000-enjoy-vaisakhi-celebrations\/"},"modified":"2010-04-26T16:35:14","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T16:35:14","slug":"90000-enjoy-vaisakhi-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2010\/04\/26\/90000-enjoy-vaisakhi-celebrations\/","title":{"rendered":"90,000 enjoy Vaisakhi celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>Record turnout as Midlanders celebrate Sikh festival<\/h3>\n<div><strong>THOUSANDS of Midlanders turned out in force to celebrate the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi.<\/strong> <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>A staggering 90,000 people &#8211; of all faiths and backgrounds &#8211; basked in the glorious sunshine as Birmingham was awash with celebration. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Vaisakhi marks the formation of the Sikh nation or Khalsa Panth in 1699.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>One of the largest Vaisakhi festivals in the world, the Birmingham events attracts people from across the Midlands and beyond.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The event &#8211; based on a \u2018Proud to be Sikh, Proud to be British\u2019 theme &#8211; opened with two huge processions setting off from Gurdwaras in Hockley and Smethwick. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The processions were led by five Sikhs in traditional dress who represented the original Panj Pyare (Beloved Ones) who were the first to join the Sikh order over 300 years ago<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Thousands of Sikhs followed the group along the streets of Birmingham, arriving at Handsworth Park just hours later where stalls and live music capped a day of festive celebration. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The 90,000 visitors topped last year\u2019s attendance of 80,000.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Cllr Martin Mullaney, Chairman of the Birmingham Cultural Partnership, said: \u201cOnce again this was a fantastic event, as I\u2019m sure the many people attending would agree.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cThe Vaisakhi festival is one of the many annual cultural highlights here in Birmingham when people from communities across the city come together \u2013 in this case to celebrate a very important date for people of the Sikh faith.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cAs part of a calendar of diverse community events it is a great example of why Birmingham has been shortlisted for UK City of Culture 2013.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Record turnout as Midlanders celebrate Sikh festival THOUSANDS of Midlanders turned out in force to celebrate the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi. &#13; A staggering 90,000 people &#8211; of all faiths and backgrounds &#8211; basked in the glorious sunshine as Birmingham was awash with celebration. &#13; Vaisakhi marks the formation of the Sikh nation or Khalsa [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}