BOOK NOOK
Vaisakhi – spring harvest festival
We celebrate the Sikh Spring festival Vaisakhi by looking at three picture books
Vaisakhi, also called Baisakhi, is the festival celebrating the founding of Sikh community the Khalsa in 1699. It’s a spring festival that occurs on 13 or 14 April every year. In 2025, Vaisakhi takes place in the UK on Monday 14 April.
History of Vaisakhi
Vaisakhi was originally a harvest festival in the Punjab until 1699, when it became Sikhism's most important festival.
In 1699, Sikhs from all over the Punjab gathered together to celebrate the local harvest festival of Vaisakhi. The tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, came out of a tent to address the people carrying a sword and asked anyone prepared to give their life for their religion to step forward.
A young man did so and went into the tent with Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Gobind Singh soon came out of the tent alone, sword covered in blood, and asked for another volunteer. This was repeated four times, until five Sikhs had gone into the tent.
Everyone was very worried that the five men had died. However, Guru Gobind Singh revealed the five men once more, alive and now wearing turbans. They became known as the Panj Piare, or ‘Beloved Five’.
Guru Gobind Singh then baptised all the men into the Khalsa. He said some prayers and sprinkled them all with sugar water called Amrit. These five men became the first members of the Khalsa.
Khalsa – means 'pure' – the name given by Guru Gobind Singh to all Sikhs who have been baptised or initiated by taking Amrit in a ceremony called Amrit Sanchar.
Celebrating the day
Sikhs begin the Vaisakhi with a visit to the gurdwara, a place of worship. After religious services are held, people begin a day of celebration.
What is Vaisakhi? - bbc.in/3R4Cl1e
They wear colourful, traditional clothes as they take part in parades through the streets (known as Nagar Keertan), where there’s lots of singing, dancing and chanting of hymns in praise of Waheguru (God).
There's also a lot of free food. Giving out free food comes from a tradition called langar, where everyone in the community – no matter how rich or poor – would come together and share a meal.
During the festival, many people perform a traditional folk dance known as Bhangra, an energetic dance that’s performed to the rhythm of a drum called the dhol. Bhangra is said to have its roots in the 14th century, when Punjabi farmers would dance to celebrate their harvest. Over time, it became a part of celebrations. You can see it at weddings and festivals, with both men and women dancing away. On Vaisakhi, people dance the Bhangra while wearing bright costumes. It brings splashes of colour to the day’s celebrations.
Books as a hook
With lots of facts and information to absorb, it can be daunting to immerse the children in such celebrations without first finding a meaningful hook – and this is where picture books come in handy!
From simple facts to immersive stories, here are three picture books about Vaisakhi:
Vaisakhi
by Deep Kaur and Keerat Kaur
Told in the same sort of first-person style as a diary for a simple, easy-to-follow yet informative story, this book follows Daya, a little girl excited about Vaisakhi. Soft, watercolour images accompany descriptions of community Vaisakhi events as well as celebrations at home that help to give little ones an overview of core concepts and traditions.
A Vaisakhi to Remember by Simran Jeet Singh and Japneet Kaur
If you’re looking for a more immersive, story-based experience that highlights the value of community, this is the book to choose! Published in March 2025, A Vaisakhi to Remember follows a little girl as she moves with her family from a rural village in India to a city in another country and worries about how they will celebrate Vaisakhi in such unfamiliar surroundings. She misses her grandmother, her goat, and the lush surroundings she grew up in, but soon finds ‘soothing touchstones’ that make gathering for Vaisakhi as exciting as back home.
Let’s Celebrate Vaisakhi! by Ajanta Chakraborty and Vivek Kumar
More of a non-fiction, educational type of text, in this book, we meet two children – Maya and Neel – from Chicago who travel back to Punjab to celebrate Vaisakhi with family. Let’s Celebrate Vaisakhi! helps provide a glimpse into the cultural diversity of India and is perfect for helping to build a visual language key of important Vaisakhi words and concepts, alongside brightly-coloured pictures.
Under 5 magazine
The magazine of the Early Years Alliance