By Asia Samachar | Malaysia |
A clutch of Canadian Sikh organisations and gurdwaras that gathered to commemorate Pal Singh Purewal have supported the idea of celebrating Guru Nanak’s birthday in April and not in November as is the norm at the moment.
The gathering at Vancouver also celebrated the launch of Purewal’s book that captures the creation of a solar based Nanakshahi calendar to replace the lunar based Bikrami calendar. The former allows fixed dates for all celebrations, while the latter does not.
Purewal, a Canadian based research scholar and an expert in mathematics and science who presented his Nanakshahi Calendar to the Sikh world in 1996, passed away in Edmonton, Canada on Sept 22, 2022.
For the book jacket cover, Purewal had suggested the book cover should carry colours associated with the Khalsa: surmaai and basanti, said one of the speakers.
Many of those present at the gathering said they had implemented the Nanakshahi calendar, though with a few exceptions.
“Looking at the ground reality, it will be tough to implement this calendar in Panjab. But gurdwaras outside Panjab are better abled to implement it,” said one of the speakers at the event. See here for the full proceeding.
The Nanakshahi calendar uses the accurate tropical year of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds. Year one of the Nanakshahi calendar is the year of Guru Nanak’s birth (1469 CE). April 1, 2022 CE is thus Nanakshahi 554.
In contrast, the lunar based Bikarmi calendar is 11 days shorter than the solar one. This means after every 30 months an additional month is added to the year making the year consisting of 384 days and 13 months. Such a situation creates a chaos for Gurpurabs, amongst other problems. The birthday of Guru Gobind Singh for instance appears twice in certain years, and not at all in certain years.
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Iconic Mool Nanakshahi Calendar architect Pal Singh Purewal passes away (Asia Samachar, 25 Sept 2022)
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