Are you Happy?
Dan and I had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy the Sikh festival in Abbotsford yesterday. http://www.bclocalnews.com/fraser_valley/abbynews/news/Celebrations_and_Parade_for_the_SIkh_Holy_Scriptures_draws_10000.html
It was a great cultural and religious event for the Sikhs. For Dan and I it was eye opening to see another religion and the sanctity that they bring to their holy scriptures. They begin at the Blueridge temple and walk down to Rotary Stadium for a speech and then walk back. It was interesting to see their special rituals. As we watched the parade or people and floats, we noticed a few things. They had a street sweeper/wetter thing that "sanitized" the sidewalk so that the road was purified and the special religious people could walk barefoot on it, followed a float with their holy scriptures on it. A man with a bike tried to cross after it had been cleaned, but not walked on yet. An organizer politely explained the ritual and asked the man to go around or to wait. I was amazed that the bicyclist responded with respect and went around. I don't know if we Christians had the same ritual, if we would have been respected that way. Or if we would have politely explained the reason the man had to go around. Who knows?
A few observations about the Sikh community:
-They are SOOOOO giving. i could not believe how giving they were. Dan and i walked to church along part of the route that the parade took; the part that had food! On our way to church at 9:30am, they were trying to give us pizza and water and soo much food. we politely refused, but promised to come after we went to church. After church, we ate our way home. A delicious Indian cuisine (and pizza, from J's). Dan and i weren't halfway through our plates when they called us over and wanted us to eat more. We explained that we wanted to finish our plates first. They almost seemed disappointed that we didn't take more. They just wanted to share their cuisine with us.
-Another note about the food. There was soooo much homemade food. Deep fried samosa pancakes, yogurt, deep friend veggies, an orange sweet candy and the list goes on. All of it was homemade and delicious. I couldn't help but think if Christians had this type of parade/festival that we would serve store bought hot dogs and hamburgers. Nothing would be homemade... and we would probably limit how much people could take. I really think we could learn a lot from the Sikh community and their overwhelming generosity.
-The Sikh's truly hold their holy scriptures and their martyrs in the utmost regard. Before they could allow the scriptures or photos of martyrs, the road had to be cleared and purified. It was incredible the amount of respect they gave.
But other than the colour and the conversations/songs in Punjabi, my favorite moment of the entire parade was when this elderly man, limped over to me and Dan and asked us, "Are you happy?" We answered, "Yes we are happy." and he shook our hands and walked away. I don't know why that question was so important. It didn't hit me until almost 12 hours later, the oddity of that particular question. Why did he ask if we were happy? Why not ask, "how are you?" or "are you enjoying the festival?" But yet, he chose, "Are you happy?"
Yes, we enjoyed our cultural experience. Yes, we enjoyed the food. Yes, we enjoyed the colourful saris. Yes, we enjoyed the music. Yes, we are happy.
It was a great cultural and religious event for the Sikhs. For Dan and I it was eye opening to see another religion and the sanctity that they bring to their holy scriptures. They begin at the Blueridge temple and walk down to Rotary Stadium for a speech and then walk back. It was interesting to see their special rituals. As we watched the parade or people and floats, we noticed a few things. They had a street sweeper/wetter thing that "sanitized" the sidewalk so that the road was purified and the special religious people could walk barefoot on it, followed a float with their holy scriptures on it. A man with a bike tried to cross after it had been cleaned, but not walked on yet. An organizer politely explained the ritual and asked the man to go around or to wait. I was amazed that the bicyclist responded with respect and went around. I don't know if we Christians had the same ritual, if we would have been respected that way. Or if we would have politely explained the reason the man had to go around. Who knows?
A few observations about the Sikh community:
-They are SOOOOO giving. i could not believe how giving they were. Dan and i walked to church along part of the route that the parade took; the part that had food! On our way to church at 9:30am, they were trying to give us pizza and water and soo much food. we politely refused, but promised to come after we went to church. After church, we ate our way home. A delicious Indian cuisine (and pizza, from J's). Dan and i weren't halfway through our plates when they called us over and wanted us to eat more. We explained that we wanted to finish our plates first. They almost seemed disappointed that we didn't take more. They just wanted to share their cuisine with us.
-Another note about the food. There was soooo much homemade food. Deep fried samosa pancakes, yogurt, deep friend veggies, an orange sweet candy and the list goes on. All of it was homemade and delicious. I couldn't help but think if Christians had this type of parade/festival that we would serve store bought hot dogs and hamburgers. Nothing would be homemade... and we would probably limit how much people could take. I really think we could learn a lot from the Sikh community and their overwhelming generosity.
-The Sikh's truly hold their holy scriptures and their martyrs in the utmost regard. Before they could allow the scriptures or photos of martyrs, the road had to be cleared and purified. It was incredible the amount of respect they gave.
But other than the colour and the conversations/songs in Punjabi, my favorite moment of the entire parade was when this elderly man, limped over to me and Dan and asked us, "Are you happy?" We answered, "Yes we are happy." and he shook our hands and walked away. I don't know why that question was so important. It didn't hit me until almost 12 hours later, the oddity of that particular question. Why did he ask if we were happy? Why not ask, "how are you?" or "are you enjoying the festival?" But yet, he chose, "Are you happy?"
Yes, we enjoyed our cultural experience. Yes, we enjoyed the food. Yes, we enjoyed the colourful saris. Yes, we enjoyed the music. Yes, we are happy.
posted by AmanDan at 10:32 AM
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