COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

The procession, or Nagar Kirtan, will finish with live sword-fighting displays



The procession, called the Nagar Kirtan, will finish with a Gatka show – Sikh martial arts – including live sword-fighting displays by Sikh warriors.

The Nagar Kirtan will start with donations of £501 being handed to each of the following: Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice, Coventry’s Nightshelter for the homeless, Marie Curie Care & Support for the terminally ill, The Ambulance Services Charity and The Sikh Helpline.

The parade marks the month of Vaisakhi which celebrates the 350th anniversary of the birth of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, founder of the Sikh warrior community who introduced the five articles of faith that Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times.

The procession will be led by five Sikhs called the Panj Pyare or beloved ones, dressed in traditional attire with others playing drums to announce the procession as it moves through the city’s streets.

There will be a number of colourful floats, with the procession led by a float carrying the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh’s holy scriptures, which for Sikhs is the embodiment of the living Guru.

The procession will start at 10.30am on April 23 at the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Parkash, Coventry and return to the same location by about 2.30pm.

It will take an anti-clockwise direction, starting from the car park of the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Parkash, in Harnall Lane, moving to Howard Street, left into Stoney Stanton Road, then left into Cross Road and again left into Foleshill Road and finally turning left into Harnall Lane West.

Thousands of Sikhs take part in colourful Vaisakhi parade through Coventry



Thousands of people took to the streets of Coventry in a parade to celebrate the start of the Sikh new year.

The annual Vaisakhi parade was held to celebrate both the start of the Sikh new year and the founding of the order of the Khalsa, central to the Sikh faith.

Ceremonial drummers, blessings and music rang out at as the parade made its way from the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Prakash in Harnall Lane to Stoney Stanton Road, Foleshill Road and back to its starting point.

There were floats decorated mainly in orange, a holy colour in Sikhism, and people dressed in traditional dress carrying ceremonial swords of lags bearing the Sikh holy symbol.

Event organiser Hardeep Bains said: “This is one of the most important festivals in the Sikh calender.”