INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

with their cloths, shawls and turbans sprinkled with petals. The celebration of the
Guru’s birthday has reached the end.
On the Gurus’ birthdays Sikh devotees are virtually wrapping the scripture in a rain of flowers
CULTURAL FESTIVALS
The ranking of festivals made by interlocutors in the semi-structured interviews indicates
that Sikhs make a categorical distinction between the Sikh gurpurubs and cultural
festivals, that is, seasonal events which are conceived to be a part of either the
regional Hindu calendar or the National Indian calendar. Whereas most of the interlocutors
emphasized the importance of taking action during a gurpurub, families and
individuals would assign the cultural festivals various degrees of religious signification
and participate in these festivals in more variable ways. During the twelve lunar
and solar months of a year there were eleven festivals that my informants either mentioned
as popular festivals among the Sikhs or claimed that they themselves observed
on religious grounds or because they were Indians living in a North Indian culture
(See Appendix 2). These festivals can be further divided into three subcategories
based on the dominant theme and the action they evoke in the local setting.
The first category involves events during which family members, and especially
women, aim to seek the welfare and protection of family members and strengthen the
relationship between the living and the dead. At least four of the mentioned festivals
(Tij, Raksha Bandhan, Shraddh, and Karva Chauth) can be incorporated in this category.
The key elements of these festivals have already been thoroughly described in studies
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008