Photos Credit: Balpreet Kaur and Kuljit Singh
Photos Credit: Balpreet Kaur and Kuljit Singh

Vancouver: Around 300,000 to 400,000 people gathered at the Celebration of Light on August 02, which has been termed as one of the largest gathering of crowd ever seen at the occasion. In such a huge crowd, a group of Sikh students from UFV, UBC, and SFU made their presence felt. The students 14828062904_22ebee7556_ophoto 2 (10) photo 3 (10) photo 4 (4)teamed up and hosted their first annual Turban Day event at English Bay before the last show of Fireworks.

Students contributed money to buy around two hundred and fifty turbans in various colors. They also bought Samosas, drinks and other food items to serve free at the beach. There was free turban tying during the event. Participants had choice of many colors to choose from. People from different ethnicities participated in the event.

The students educated them what the turban is and what it means to be a Sikh. “Sikhism is the world’s 5th largest religion and the turban serves as a primary identity of all Sikh men and women around the globe. The turban symbolizes humility, royalty, respect, and equality.

The purpose of the event was to create awareness of the turban to the people of Vancouver”, said Arwant Singh, one of the organizer of the event.

He added, “This event wouldn’t have been successful without the help of club members and other volunteers.”

Volunteers from UBC Sikh Student Association, UFV Sikh Student Association and SFU Sikh Student Association make the event possible Main event organizers were Arshdeep Singh UBC, Arwant Singh UBC, Tarveer Singh SFU, Manveer Singh SFU, Sukhmani Kaur UFV, Inderpreet Kaur UFV and Hemant Singh UFV.