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What is Vaisakhi? An Overview | Basics of Sikhi

Every year, Sikhs come together to celebrate Vaisakhi, but what is Vaisakhi? Why is it such an essential part of Sikhi (Sikhism)? 

During the month of Vaisakh (mid-April to mid-May), Guru Gobind Singh Ji (the tenth Sikh Guru) summoned Sikhs far and wide to the city of Anandpur Sahib, India. 

Once the Sikhs gathered, Guru Ji presented Themselves on a platform. In a test of faith, Guru Ji raised their sword and asked who was willing to give their head! In time, five Sikhs stood, and each presented themselves to the Guru, offering themselves as a sacrifice. In turn, Guru Gobind Singh Ji blessed them with Amrit (ambrosial nectar) and initiated them into the Khalsa. These five were hereafter known as the Panj Pyare (the Five Beloved Ones). 

Since this day in 1699, millions of Sikhs worldwide have been blessed with Amrit, becoming initiated into the Khalsa (Army of the Immaculate), adhering to stand up against injustice and provide the basic needs to people from all walks of life.

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People visit the illuminated Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine on the occasion of Vaisakhi, the Sikh New Year, in Amritsar, India, Tuesday, April 14, 2009. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

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Sikh men performing the bhangra dance on the occasion of the Baisakhi festival.

Photo by Nitin Kanotra/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

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Sikhs celebrating Vaisakhi at a temple in Kabul, Afghanistan. 

Photographs by Hindustan Times. 

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April 2025: Glasgow, Scotland Sikhs take part in the annual procession as part of the Vaisakhi celebration to celebrate the birth of the Sikh nation Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Image

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Sikh devotees pay obeisance with folded hands, facing the Golden Temple, the holiest of Sikh shrines on the eve of the Baisakhi festival in Amritsar, 13 April, 2010. 

Photograph: Raminder Pal Singh/EPA

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April 2023: Amritsar, India Sikh pilgrims wait for a bus to Pakistan during the Baisakhi spring harvest festival.

Photograph: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

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Girls light hold special prayers with lamps at a historical temple in Akhnoor during the Baisakhi festival. 2010.

Photograph: Channi Anand/AP

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A child pours holy water taken from the sacred pond at the Golden Temple, the holiest of Sikh shrines during the Baisakhi festival in Amritsar, India. 2010.

Photograph: Raminder Pal Singh/EPA

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Women and men huddle together in a bid to get ‘holy’ drinking water from a fountain in Hassan Abdal, Pakistan, presumably discovered by Guru Nanak himself. Photo by Naveed Ahmad

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2015: Quezon, Philippines With their best dresses on, girls join the Palm Sunday rites outside the Holy Family parish church

Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP

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Haiti: A little girl stands beside decorative palm fronds during Palm Sunday. (Hector Retamal/Getty Images)

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2015: Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia A woman participates in a mass held as part of the Palm Sunday celebrations

Photograph: Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images

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A man holds palm fronds during Palm Sunday Mass in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on April 14, 2019. Palm Sunday marks Jesus Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem, when his followers laid palm branches in his path, prior to his crucifixion. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

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April 16, 2022: A child standing among priests outside the Patriarchal Cathedral after an Orthodox Palm Sunday pilgrimage in Bucharest, Romania. Thousands joined the pilgrimage, which has been affected by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in the previous two years.

(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

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2017: Tokarnia, Poland Catholic believers take part in a Palm Sunday procession

Photograph: Jacek Bednarczyk/EPA

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2015: Lipnica Murowana, Poland An Easter Palm Contest to find the tallest constructed palms on Palm Sunday at the market square

Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/Beata Zawrzel/Demotix/Corbis