By: K.S.Nijher Painted Post, NY
Despite more than two and half centuries of hard work by the Sikh Gurus to eradicate superstition, and ignorance from our hearts and minds, “we their Sikhs, haven’t moved an inch.
The stupidity of our following the Lunar system (based upon the lighted and dark halfs of the moon) for establishing the celebrations of the most important mile stones in Sikh history, is one of the many examples of our slavery to an out dated system.
- J.Singh and Harbhajan Singh in their article “On Calendar and Date (WSN July 9, 1993)” have hit the nail right on the head by questioning the sanity of following this fickle and unpredictable lunar calendar.
Furthermore, by pointing out the consequences of maintaining the status quo, they did an excellent job of explaining how the significance of an event like the “Indian Government’s attack on the Darbar Sahib on Guru Arjun Dey Ji’s martyrdom day, in order to kill the maximum number of innocent Sikhs” can get lost in the shuffle of these calendars.
As a solution, they have offered to recognize and accept the widely established “Gregorian calendar” in order to decide the dates and months of our celebrations.
For us, the Sikhs living in foreign lands, this idea seems to be the way to go, because as pointed out by the authors, our lives are controlled by this “Gregorian” calendar. However for those still living in the Punjab, this may not be a choice which will be accepted with enthusiasm simply because to them, Vaisakh, Jeth, and Harh etc. may still be more meaningful than January, February and March. Moreover, the question of emotional attachment to something of the Indian origin vs. that of the foreign origin cannot be over looked. All we need to do is to bring some uniformity into the process, by switching from the superstitions lunar system of keeping time, to the sensible solar time system, as a starter, the following is suggested.
The Sikh High Command and Sikh scholars should go back into the Sikh history to decide once and for all the dates in terms of Vaisakh, Jeth, and Harh etc. (based upon the solar system) on which the actual events took place. These in tum should be the dates on which we should celebrate the events of our history.
Such an exercise will automatically fix the exact dates of all the events on the Gregorian calendar also Sikh Calendar:
In addition, a serious consideration should be given to start a “Sikh” calendar which is logical and free from any kind of superstitions. The main thrust should be on logic and simplicity.
The counting of the years for such a calendar should start from the Vaisakhi of “birth of the Khalsa,” and Vaisakh should be its first month of the year, thus making the first of Vaisakh the first day of the year. There are several reasons for adopting such a calendar. First, “Birth of Khalsa” represents, if not the most, then at least one of the most important days in Sikh history thus making it worthy of being the first day of the year in the Sikh calendar.
Second, this is a day which is based upon a very logical, predictable, and strict solar movement. This is the day on which the Sun enters the Zodiac sign of Aries (0.00 degree of the 360 degree zodiac circle of: the heavens) according to the Indian System of calculation, based upon the concept of a moving zodiac. The entry of the Sun into the Aries or any other sign for that matter is not of any superstitious consequence, but rather of the stability and accuracy of sessions, dates, and time.
Further, the first day of each of the following months falls on dates on which the Sun moves into the next Zodiacal signs such as Taurus, Gemini etc. again according to a very strict unchangeable, accurate, and predictable solar timing.
Movement of the Sun from one sign to the other has given birth of the word Sumkrant (Sum+krant (change), popularly known as Sungrand in Punjabi. Sungrand is the first day of each month, from the month of Vaisakh through Assoo Sun transits in for 31 days in each sign, while its transit varies from 28 to 30 days in the remaining signs covering months from Katak through Chet.
For the purposes of the Sikh Calendar if the first five months from Vaisakh through Bhadon are assigned 31 days each, followed by 30 days in each of the remaining months it will give us 365 days in a year. To take care of the approximate quarter of a day extra in actual year, the last month of Chet could be assigned the correction of a day making it occasionally 31 days long to take care of the something similar to the leap year. Such a step will establish the independence of the Sikh Way of keeping time to celebrate events of its history and other events of Sikh life. It will free us from the slavery of the Brahmin forever, and we will not have to go to him to ask, as to when we should celebrate the birth of Guru Nanak, or martyrdom day of Guru Arjun! ’ Finally, it will crystallize our thought process, and thus free us from the yoke of Hinduism. Fourthly it will bring sanity to the whole process.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 20, 1993
