Hola Mohalla Celebrations 2012

Come March 9, and the whole of the festivities for the year seemingly takes an upswing. Hola Mohalla is  one important Sikh event which falls in the lunar month of Chet as per the Nanakshahi calendar. Mostly it falls in the month of March and there are times that it coincides with the New Year .This entire event lasts for a full week, and it has activities like camping out and has many celebrations which show a lot of activities like bravery and prowess. This is then followed by a cultural event like poetry, music and kirtan. As part of the meals, which is a very typical Sikh activity during religious occasions, the visitors and the devotees sit in queues which are called Pangats and eat the delicious vegetarian fare that is seen in the Langars. The entire event ends with a military procession. This is held near one of the seats of the Sikh temporal authority, the Sri Keshahgarh Sahib.

The Story

The first Sikh encyclopedia is the Mahan Kosh and it was compiled by Bhai Kahan Singh. It was compiled during the first half of the 20th century. He says that Hola is a word that is derived from the word Halla which means a charge taken over by a military person. The term Mohalla means an organized army group or a procession. Thus the words Hola Mohalla means the charge of an army. The Punjabi word Mahalia means an organized procession of the army with the standard bearers and the drums being added to it. It is also used to tem a processions where you would have a group moving from one place to another.

Hola is a word in Sanskrit and it is important that we know the difference between Holi and Hola. Holi is the spring festival in India and is the festival of colours. It normally takes place a day before the Hola Mohalla.

It is said that the tenth Sikh Guru Guru Gobind Singh started this event of Hola Mohalla. He was busy fighting Aurangzeb of the Mughals and also the Hill Rajputs. He had also just founded the Khalsa Panth. In the year 1701, on February 22, Guru Gobind Singh also started a new trend of supervising one day of reciting poetry and also faking battles. This was done at the Holgarh fort. Since then the tradition of doing this, spread across the country in all the towns in Punjab and related regions. So it spread from the holy town of Andanpur sahib and went to the nearby Kiratpur Sahib and then went to the Shivalik foothills and then gradually to other Gurudwaras across the worlHola Mohalla events, Hola Mohalla sikh celebrations, 2012 Hola Mohad.

Thus this Sikh event Hola is an event that takes place in the holy month of March. Mahalia comes from the Arabic root Hal which means alighting or descending, which is a word that is very sacred. The streets in Anandapur are filled with a lot of festivities during this time. So the revellers joyously sprinkle a lot of powdered coloured and these are either dry powder or are mixed with other. The skills of martial arts are demonstrated and it is expressed in the battles.

The whole origin of this event was celebrating a great battle against the imperial rule and the whole effort was to channelise the whole energy of the people here to a constructive activity. Thus Hola Mohalla became a yearly event which was held in the whole of the Sikh reign. The festival is very popular and and there was a request by the Khalsa Diwan to make it a public holiday, So out of the five Sikh public holidays that were requested by the Khalsa Diwan in the year 1889, the Government got only the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak and Hola Mohalla holidays approved. Today this is the biggest event in the Anandapur region.

Anandapur is a holy city meaning The City of Bliss and is located on the lower regions of the Shivalik hills in the state of Punjab in the district of Ropar. It is very well connected with the Indian cities by road as well as rail. Lying around 31 km to the Rupnagar it is a major Sikh historical centre. The Sikhs with a lot of reverence call it the Anandapur Sahib. This was the place where Guru Gobind Singh started the Panj Piare or the five beloved ones and the Khalsa and started the Saint Soldiers who promised to lay down their life for the needy , the oppressed and the poor. They also laid down their political and economic rights as well as the social commitments along with the event.

Today it is the Nihang Singhs who come across as the descendants of Guru Gobind Singh’s army, and they are a unique lot with the orders for being very military in nature and they have the privilege to wear the rich blue robes and the large turbans which are embellished and decorated well. Today these are the warriors who are the mainstay of the Hola Mohalla. And they are seen carrying these traditional weapons of the past and also the modern fire arms. These soldiers are very skilled at sword yielding, tent pegging, jousting and other sports that are related to war activities.

Thus the Hola Mohalla is a Sikh event that is held to respect the wishes of their leader Guru Gobind Singh to exhibit courage and bravery always.