Guru Nānak Jayantī

When it falls

The full moon of Kārttika, in November. Guru Nānak was born in 1469; Sikh reckoning keeps the birthday on this full moon rather than on the April date some historians give.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

Nānak was born at Talwaṇḍī, now Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, into a Hindu family in a country ruled by Muslims. He worked as an accountant, married, had two sons, and at about thirty went to bathe in a river and did not come out for three days. When he returned he said: there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim.

He spent the next quarter century walking — to Mecca, to Baghdad, to Assam, to Sri Lanka — with a Muslim companion, Mardānā, playing the rabāb while he sang. What he taught fits in three lines: remember the name, earn your living honestly, share what you have.

He settled at Kartarpur, farmed, and appointed a successor from among his followers rather than from his family. Nine Gurus followed him, and the tenth put the succession into the scripture itself.

How the day is kept

• The Gurū Granth Sāhib is read from beginning to end without a break over the forty-eight hours before the day — an Akhaṇḍ Pāṭh, taken in relay by readers.
• The day before, a procession (Nagar Kīrtan) goes through the streets behind the scripture on a float, led by five men in saffron standing for the Pañj Pyāre, with hymn singing and often a display of gatkā, the Sikh martial art.
• The day itself begins about four in the morning with Āsā dī Vār, then hymns and lectures until noon.
• Langar, the free kitchen open to everyone regardless of religion or caste, runs all day; the meal and the sitting on the floor to eat it are the point, not the charity.
• Kept largest at Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, where Indian pilgrims cross for the day, and at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, which is lit and reflected in the pool at night.

More birthdays of gods, saints and teachers