A sea of salwaar kameez, traditional Indian clothes, in every color imaginable stretched for miles Sunday before the mouthwatering aroma of cumin, garlic and onion filled the air.
Thousands of festivalgoers perused books, toys, artwork, clothes, pamphlets from the Sikh Coalition. Kirtans, or prayers, sounded from loud speakers as Sikhs from across the globe prayed at the Gurdwara Sahib in Yuba City during the 45th annual Nagar Kirtan.
The three-day religious festival, one of the largest gatherings in the world of Sikhs, capped its end Sunday with a 4.5 mile procession around Yuba City.
Rose petals, dropped by a helicopter, scattered over the main float that housed the Sacred Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, or Sikhism’s holy scriptures. Devotees followed that float and others around the town.
“It gives me a sense of pride in my community,” said Puneet Sandhu, who’s been attending Yuba City’s Nagar Kirtan since she was a young girl.
The expected 100,000 people who came to the Northern California city — more than twice the population of Yuba City — received free food. An elderly man sat next to a growing pile of steamed potatoes as he carefully chopped them into bite-sized cubes. A small child watched as a woman carefully swirled batter into a boiling vat of oil to make jalebi, fried dough later soaked in a sugary syrup.
Kamalpreet Singh helped the food preparations as a form of “seva,” meaning voluntary service to others. Seva is a tenet of Sikhism.
Singh recalled how people arrived from India and rejoiced at spotting large crowds at Nagar Kirtan in a foreign country.
“Everybody knows this is the biggest one on the West Coast,” Singh said.
Harminder Singh, who’s father helped to create the Gurdawara Sahib in Yuba City, some of earliest ancestors in America first came to Washington to make railroads and eventually settled in Yuba City as farmers, he said.
He recalled passing out water to about 20,000 to 30,000 attendees while on the parade float as a young boy. Now, he knows of those who come from England, Africa and Australia.
Yuba City attracts such large crowds because Gurdawara Sahib was the first one to celebrate Nagar Kirtan in California as the second worship site dedicated to Sikhs in California, Harminder Singh said. It now hosts people with all backgrounds: Hmongs, Americans and Mexicans.
“They are realizing over the years that they are welcome,” Harminder Singh said. “They feel more free to be here. They can come and enjoy.”
