Tens of thousands of Sikhs attend community parade in Yuba City

By Ravinder Singh Robin

Yuba City (United States), Nov. 2(ANI): Tens of thousands of people from different parts of the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, and India attended the 30th Annual Sikh Parade here on Sunday.

The nearly five mile religious procession was taken out to mark the tercentenary celebrations of Guruship of Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhs, in Yuba City, about 125 miles from San Francisco Bay Area.

Over the last three decades, this parade has grown from a local community event to an international one. Initially, it commenced with a few hundreds of people and the parade today aims to aware people about Sikhism, their culture and customs.

Each year Sikhs travel to Yuba City from different parts of the world to partake in one of the largest devotional celebrations in the Western Hemisphere. It is estimated to generate 20 to 30 million dollars for the local economy.

Amid chants of ‘Satnam Waheguru’ and religious sloganeering of ‘Jo Bole so Nihal’ the Punj Pyaras or, the five Sikh clergies led the parade, carrying the Sri Nishan Sahib, the religious flag of Sikhism.

Also, there were flags of California State in the parade.

As the procession started off from the Sikh Temple of Yuba City, a helicopter hovering above the ceremonial parade showered a rain of flowers from high above the procession.

Thousands of Sikhs walked alongside hundreds of floats. Along the parade route, Sikh families who set up temporary stalls distributed free drinks, snacks and cooked meal for the visitors along the parade route.

Sikhs have been a part of the American landscape for over 130 years. And, the Yuba City area, which has some of the best agricultural land, is known for the largest Sikh population of farm owners.

Tajinder Singh Dosanjh, a senior member of the local committee, said that the annual parade helps people to meet each other and witness a large religious gathering and offers a platform to the Sikhs to discuss their issues.

Besides it being a religious function, the local people here opine that the procession also demonstrates their political and economic strength along with the unity among the Sikhs.

John Gill, a senior Sikh leader of Yuba city, said that by doing such events the community would move ahead to create awareness in the USA about Sikhs so there would no more hate crime against Sikhs due to mistaken identity.

Many U.S Congressmen and representatives of the Governor’s office attended the parade besides the Sikh devotees.

Wally Herger, member, Congress, on this occasion said that after 9/11 we have been facing a lot of challenges and it is important that we should not mix up out friends (Sikhs) with the radical groups of Islam.

We need continued efforts to make sure that American public is made aware about the Sikh community.

Nearly 40 floats decorated as per traditional themes, which reflected the vibrant nature of the Sikh Culture, Sikhism and of the Sikh way of life, were also one of the major attractions during the parade. (ANI)

with thanks : source : http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/67010.htm

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