Surrey Vaisakhi parade draws record crowd with over 500,000 attendees (PHOTOS)

Today’s beautiful weather brought a record-breaking crowd to this year’s Vaisakhi parade in Surrey.

According to organizers, the final attendance count came to an astonishing half-a-million people.

Typically the Surrey event draws in crowds of over 300,000 people, but this new record turnout made the Surrey event “the largest Vaisakhi parade in the world” outside of India, according to organizers.

 

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For Sikhs in BC and around the world, Vaisakhi is a holy day. It commemorates the birth or establishment of Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the tenth Sikh Guru, in 1699.

This year’s parade featured 20 floats from local Sikh organizations, schools, and humanitarian groups.

The most important float carried the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh holy scriptures) along the streets of Surrey.

Aside from the floats and other festivities, hundreds of families and volunteers set up tents in front of their homes and on the parade route to serve free vegetarian food.

The practice of serving free meals to the community are acts of seva and langar — two significant aspects of the Sikh religion.

Seva translates to selfless service and langar is the term used to describe the common kitchen where vegetarian food is served at gurdwaras (Sikh temples).

 

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“We are thankful to our community here in Surrey, as well as the guests who travelled from as far away as the United Kingdom, the US and Australia to attend today’s event,” said spokesperson Moninder Singh Bual of Surrey’s Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Temple, in a release.

Check out some photos of the 2019 Surrey Vaisakhi Parade below:

 

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A post shared by Carmen Ruiz y Laza / CarmenTV (@carmenruizylaza) on Apr 20, 2019 at 11:30am PDT

 

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A post shared by Jim Pattison Volvo of Surrey (@jpvolvoofsurrey) on Apr 20, 2019 at 10:38am PDT

 

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A post shared by Keith Morris (@chromenewfie) on Apr 20, 2019 at 2:29pm PDT

 

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A post shared by Manveer Singh (@turbanoutfitter) on Apr 20, 2019 at 2:12pm PDT

 

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A post shared by Gurkamal Sivia (@gurkamalsivia) on Apr 20, 2019 at 5:35pm PDT

 

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A post shared by Harvina Sidhu (@harvinasidhu) on Apr 20, 2019 at 5:22pm PDT

 

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A post shared by Manjinder Singh Sidhu (@manjindersidhu11) on Apr 20, 2019 at 4:48pm PDT

 

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