On Sunday 21st May, 'Banbury Friends Festival' which celebrated our
town's diversity. The Sikh community set up two stalls in different places in the town centre and provided free samosay and pakoray
to the public. The stalls had a big banner saying, "Sikh sharing love for humanity... inspired by Guru Nanak." Any money raised through donations by passerbys was given to a local homeless charity.
There were a few homeless people that came up two or three times asking if they could have some more food. When the Sevadaars happily packed them bags of food to take with them, they were so happy and couldn't believe the generosity of the Sikh community.
There were two
Christian ladies that were nurses who spent about 45 minutes learning about Sikhi. They were
amazed to hear about Sikhi, and asked lots of questions. Whilst hearing about Sikhi, they said Sikhi is amazing and that we are very lucky to have such a religion.
In the late afternoon, at a local centre for elderly people, the inter-faith festival continued. School children and different groups did performances for the public.
The 'Baba Banda Singh Gatka Akhara from Derby' especially came to
Banbury to do a presentation on Sikhs and Gatka, along with a
demonstration. For a town which has very few Sikhs, it was great
prachaar and was very well recieved. (One or two people got scared seeing Kirpans being swung around, but afterwards they were okay!).
I would recommend others to organise such events where you give
free food and have opportunity to share Guru Nanak Dev Ji's message with
the wider community. Interfaith groups are a really good opportunity to
do great parchaar. Please find out what's happening in your local area
and participate. We cannot moan that no one knows who Sikhs are and what
Sikhi is if we don't take the initiative ourselves. Guru Ji will give us the
strength and wisdom... we just have to have the right attitude and take
the first step.
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