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Baisakhi and Vaisakhi
The wheat harvest and the founding of the Khalsa, with langar of dal and kadah prashad scented with cardamom.
Spices for Baisakhi and Vaisakhi
Vaisakhi marks the wheat harvest in Punjab and, for Sikhs, the founding of the Khalsa in 1699. Gurdwaras serve langar, the free community meal, on a huge scale: dal seasoned with cumin, turmeric, ginger and garam masala, rice kheer scented with cardamom, and kadah prashad, the sweet of wheat, ghee and sugar, which is sometimes flavoured with cardamom as well. In Southall, Birmingham and Toronto, processions end with the same food served on the street. The langar spice list is mild by design, so that everyone, of every background, can eat.
The spices
Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Vaisakhi" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Turmeric: J.M.Garg, CC BY 3.0, source
- Cumin: Sanjay Acharya, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Cardamom: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, source