{"id":66,"date":"2010-04-13T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html"},"modified":"2010-04-13T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T07:00:00","slug":"sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html","title":{"rendered":"Sikhs Celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of Sikhs from around the world have gathered in&nbsp;north India and Pakistan to celebrate <a href=\"http:\/\/festivals.iloveindia.com\/baisakhi\/\">Baisakhi Festival 2010<\/a>, a three-day religious holiday combining a harvest and New Year&#8217;s celebration. (The festival, sometimes spelled Besaki, Vaisakhi, or Vasakhi, is also celebrated by some Hindus.) I&#8217;ve never reported on this holiday before, but it sounds like fun &#8212; certainly&nbsp;a happier occasion for a Sikh gathering than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/ap\/article\/ALeqM5i_S1zzF0Ik9uparAwoxPeyUkgmyAD9EV0CCO5\">the recent protest against a visiting Indian politician<\/a> in New York City.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/ap\/article\/ALeqM5i_S1zzF0Ik9uparAwoxPeyUkgmyAD9EV0CCO5\">The Times of India reports <\/a>that some of the pilgrims from India&nbsp;have had been encountering visa problems in Pakistan. It&#8217;s not clear whether this is a religious, political or security concern &#8212; knowing the region, I would guess all of the above, especially given that <a href=\"http:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/world\/pakistan\/Pakistan-cuts-short-visit-of-Indian-Sikh-pilgrims\/articleshow\/5607482.cms\">a previous story reported <\/a>that Pakistan had to cut short a February&nbsp;pilgrimage after two Sikhs were abducted and killed by the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>In America, some immigrant groups are holding diaspora community celebrations, including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news-journalonline.com\/news\/local\/east-volusia\/2010\/04\/11\/festival-heralds-culture-cuisine-of-india.html\">one in Daytona Beach, Florida.<\/a> Hmmm&#8230; sounds like a story that could use a travel budget!<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>subscribe to Belief Beat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of Sikhs from around the world have gathered in&nbsp;north India and Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010, a three-day religious holiday combining a harvest and New Year&#8217;s celebration. (The festival, sometimes spelled Besaki, Vaisakhi, or Vasakhi, is also celebrated by some Hindus.) I&#8217;ve never reported on this holiday before, but it sounds like fun&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sikhs Celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010 - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sikhs Celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010 - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thousands of Sikhs from around the world have gathered in&nbsp;north India and Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010, a three-day religious holiday combining a harvest and New Year&#8217;s celebration. (The festival, sometimes spelled Besaki, Vaisakhi, or Vasakhi, is also celebrated by some Hindus.) I&#8217;ve never reported on this holiday before, but it sounds like fun&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-13T07:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sikhs Celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010 - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sikhs Celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010 - Belief Beat","og_description":"Thousands of Sikhs from around the world have gathered in&nbsp;north India and Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010, a three-day religious holiday combining a harvest and New Year&#8217;s celebration. (The festival, sometimes spelled Besaki, Vaisakhi, or Vasakhi, is also celebrated by some Hindus.) I&#8217;ve never reported on this holiday before, but it sounds like fun&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html","og_site_name":"Belief Beat","article_published_time":"2010-04-13T07:00:00+00:00","author":"Nicole Neroulias","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html","name":"Sikhs Celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010 - Belief Beat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-04-13T07:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-04-13T07:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/04\/sikhs-gear-up-for-baisakhi-festival-2010.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sikhs Celebrate Baisakhi Festival 2010"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/","name":"Belief Beat","description":"BeliefBeat - Nicole Neroulias","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b","name":"Nicole Neroulias","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","caption":"Nicole Neroulias"},"description":"Nicole Neroulias is a correspondent for Religion News Service, a secular news and photo service devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics. A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously written for The New York Times and other media outlets. She and her family live in Seattle.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/author\/nneroulias"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}