About Vaisakhi
Vaisakhi, also written Baisakhi, is the Punjab spring harvest festival and, for Sikhs, Khalsa Sajna Divas, the anniversary of the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur Sahib in 1699. In 2027 it falls on Wednesday, 14 April 2027. It is also the solar new year across much of north India, and the date on which the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in 1919.
Vaisakhi does two jobs on the same morning. In the fields it is the end of the wheat year in Punjab. In the gurdwara it is the birthday of the Khalsa, and what happened at Anandpur Sahib in 1699 still decides how Sikhs are named, dressed and organised. Which half you write about depends on who you are writing to.
Anandpur Sahib, 1699
Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru, had been executed in Delhi in 1675 for refusing to convert to Islam. His son, Guru Gobind Singh, called Sikhs to Anandpur Sahib for Vaisakhi.
In the account Sikhs keep, the Guru drew his sword and asked for a head. One man stood up and was taken into a tent; the Guru came out alone with a bloodied blade. He asked again, four more times, and four more men went in. Then all five walked out alive. He called them the Panj Pyare, the five beloved.
They came from different corners of the subcontinent and from castes that would not ordinarily have eaten together. Bhai Daya Singh, the first to stand, was born Daya Ram in a Khatri family in Lahore. Sikh tradition places the others' homes as far apart as Hastinapur, Jagannath Puri, Dwarka and Bidar.
The Guru then made khande di pahul: water in an iron bowl, stirred with a double-edged khanda while Gurbani was recited, with sugar crystals dissolved in. The five drank from the same bowl. Until that day, initiation had been charan pahul, water touched by the Guru's foot; from that day it was the sword and the shared bowl. Men took the name Singh, lion, and in time Sikh women took Kaur.
Then the Guru asked the five to initiate him in turn, and took amrit from their hands, becoming the sixth of the Khalsa.
Vaho vaho Gobind Singh, aape Gur chela. Hail, Guru Gobind Singh, himself both Master and disciple.
That inversion is the point Sikhs return to on Vaisakhi. The Panj Pyare were given the authority to summon and correct the Guru himself, and a convened five still lead nagar kirtans, perform Amrit Sanchar and lay gurdwara foundation stones today.
| The Five Ks | What it is | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Kesh | Uncut hair, kept covered | Accepting the body as it is given; it also put Khalsa Sikhs outside the Mughal head-shaving tax |
| Kangha | A small wooden comb | Discipline and cleanliness, worn in the hair |
| Kara | An iron or steel bangle | A restraint on the hand that wears it |
| Kirpan | A sword or dagger | The duty to defend the defenceless, not a weapon of aggression |
| Kachera | Cotton breeches | Readiness and self-control |
The Rahit also set four kurahits, the breaches that put a Sikh outside the Khalsa: cutting the hair, eating kutha meat, adultery, and tobacco or other intoxicants.
Two dates, and a disagreement worth knowing
Vaisakhi is Mesha Sankranti, the Sun's entry into Aries, so it stays near 13 or 14 April instead of moving across weeks. When the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee approved the Nanakshahi calendar in January 2003, most gurpurabs were fixed to Gregorian dates, but three observances were deliberately left on the older Bikrami reckoning so that Sikhs and Hindus would keep them together: Vaisakhi, Guru Nanak Gurpurab and Bandi Chhor Divas. That is why Vaisakhi still shifts by a day some years.
The 1699 date is also not settled. Sikh convention says 13 April 1699. Convert the Bikrami date properly and, because the Gregorian changeover later skipped eleven days, you get 29 or 30 March 1699, which is what many calendar scholars use. Some early Sikh chroniclers place the founding several years earlier still. None of this changes when the day is kept.
How is Vaisakhi celebrated as a harvest festival?
In Punjab, Vaisakhi is when the rabi wheat is ready. The old practice of aawat pauni, neighbours turning out together to cut one family's crop and then the next, is where bhangra and gidda come from; they are harvest dances before they are party dances. Melas run at Talwandi Sabo, where Takht Sri Damdama Sahib marks the place Guru Gobind Singh completed the recompilation of the Guru Granth Sahib, and at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib, where Nihang jathas hold gatka and horsemanship displays much as they do at Hola Mohalla a few weeks earlier in March.
The day is not only Punjabi or only Sikh. Hindus bathe at Haridwar, where the Ganga is held to have descended on this day. In Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh it is Satuan, when sattu and jaggery are eaten and given away. Dogra families in Jammu call it Basoa and bathe in the Tawi. The same solar moment is Vishu in Kerala, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Pohela Boishakh in Bengal and Bohag Bihu in Assam, though Kerala's almanac sometimes places Vishu a day later.
Outside India the biggest gatherings are nagar kirtans. Vancouver has held one since 1979 and it is the city's largest single-day event; Surrey's has drawn crowds of half a million.
What to write
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh. Khalsa Sajna Divas diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan to you and your family.
Vaisakhi diyan vadhaiyan! Hope the fields are good this year and you dance badly at the mela, as usual.
Happy Vaisakhi to you and your family. Enjoy the day, and eat something from the langar for me.
Vaisakhi diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan. May the wheat weigh heavy and the mandi pay what it is worth.
Vadhaiyan on taking amrit this Vaisakhi. Thinking of you today, and glad you chose the day the Khalsa began.
Vaisakhi diyan vadhaiyan, Bhaji and Bebe. Missing the Anandpur trip this year. Keep a plate of kadah parshad aside for me.
Happy Vaisakhi. I know the nagar kirtan there is bigger than ours now. Send photos, eat too much, call your mother.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh. Thinking of you today, at the Darbar Sahib and at the Bagh both.
Do
- Use "Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh" with a Sikh friend. It is a greeting, not a prayer you need to be Sikh to say.
- Write Vaisakhi with a V for Sikh institutions; Baisakhi with a B is the common Punjabi form and is not wrong.
- If you visit a gurdwara, cover your head, remove your shoes, leave tobacco outside, and sit on the floor in the langar hall with everyone else.
Avoid
- Don't reduce it to bhangra and mustard fields when writing to an Amritdhari Sikh. For them the day is Khalsa Sajna Divas first.
- Don't gift alcohol or tobacco. Both are forbidden to the Khalsa, and the gesture lands badly.
- Don't send a celebratory graphic about 13 April to friends in Amritsar without a thought for Jallianwala Bagh.
- Khalsa Sajna Divas
- The founding day of the Khalsa, the Sikh name for Vaisakhi
- Panj Pyare
- The five beloved, the first five initiated in 1699; also any convened five today
- Khande di Pahul
- Initiation with amrit stirred by a double-edged sword, replacing the older charan pahul
- Amrit Sanchar
- The initiation ceremony at which a Sikh takes amrit
- Nagar Kirtan
- A procession through the streets led by the Panj Pyare, with the Guru Granth Sahib
- Vadhaiyan
- Congratulations in Punjabi; "lakh lakh vadhaiyan" is a hundred thousand of them
- Aawat Pauni
- The Punjabi custom of neighbours harvesting each other's fields in turn
How to wish someone on Vaisakhi
Vaisakhi carries two things at once, and a good wish picks the one that fits your reader. For a Punjabi farming family it is the wheat coming in, and the wish is about the crop and the mela. For an Amritdhari Sikh it is the birthday of the Khalsa, and the fitting line is Khalsa Sajna Divas diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan. For Sikh friends generally, Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh is never wrong. Keep the harvest jokes away from the religious half.
Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.
Language tip: English, Hindi + regional language.
When is Vaisakhi in 2026 and 2027?
Vaisakhi is on 14 Apr every year. Only the weekday changes.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
When is Vaisakhi in 2027?
Vaisakhi 2027 falls on Wednesday, 14 April 2027.
What happened on Vaisakhi in 1699?
At Anandpur Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh asked a gathered congregation for volunteers willing to give their heads, and five men came forward one after another. He named them the Panj Pyare and initiated them with amrit stirred by a double-edged sword, founding the Khalsa. He then asked the five to initiate him in turn, becoming the sixth member of the order he had just created.
What is the difference between Vaisakhi and Baisakhi?
They are the same word and the same festival. Punjabi dialects substitute B for V, so Baisakhi is common in speech and in north Indian usage, while Sikh institutions generally write Vaisakhi. In the Dogra region of Jammu the same day is called Basoa.
Why does Vaisakhi fall on 13 April in some years and 14 April in others?
Vaisakhi is set by the Sun's entry into Aries under the traditional Bikrami calendar. When the SGPC approved the Nanakshahi calendar in 2003, Vaisakhi was one of three observances deliberately left on the older reckoning, along with Guru Nanak Gurpurab and Bandi Chhor Divas, so that Sikhs and Hindus would keep them on the same day. That is why the date still moves.
How do you wish a Sikh friend on Vaisakhi?
"Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh" is the standard Sikh greeting and always works. For the day itself, "Vaisakhi diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan" covers the harvest and the festival, and "Khalsa Sajna Divas diyan vadhaiyan" is the right line for a friend who marks it as the founding of the Khalsa.
Is Vaisakhi the Sikh new year?
No. Vaisakhi is the solar new year for several north Indian communities, but the Nanakshahi calendar used by Sikh institutions begins its year on 1 Chet, around 14 March. Vaisakhi's importance to Sikhs comes from 1699, not from the calendar.
Why is 13 April significant in Indian history?
On 13 April 1919, a crowd that had gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar for the Vaisakhi fair and to protest the Rowlatt Act was fired on by troops under Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, who had blocked the enclosure's only narrow exit. The official count was 379 dead and over 1,200 injured; Indian estimates were far higher, and the massacre turned public opinion decisively against British rule.
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