Thousands to attend gurdwara for Vaisakhi

A special Vaisakhi shabad (prayer song) was being sung in a prayer room in preparation for Saturday

Up to 10,000 people are expected to attend a gurdwara in Birmingham on Saturday, as Sikhs celebrate Vaisakhi.

Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha Gurdwara in Handsworth has opportunities for people to volunteer.

Members of the community will be preparing the Langar - food cooked in the community kitchen in the gurdwara - from the early hours on Saturday.

Vaisakhi is one of the most important dates in the Sikh calendar, a day to celebrate 1699 - the year when Sikhism was born as a collective faith.

A volunteer who was preparing food on Friday, Jasvinder Kaur, said the focus was on "making the Langar fresh, pure vegetarian".

"No egg, no fish, no meat or alcohol is served here at all," she added.

All ingredients were sourced from local farms, the volunteer said.

"The idea is that no-one leaves the Guru's home spiritually and physically hungry.

She said that the women serving the Langar were all volunteers: "This brings loving devotion, the process of putting virtues, compassion, benevolence, contentment, humility and love into the food that's being prepared."

Volunteers in the kitchen have been making rotis to be served as part of the Langar

Another volunteer, Ranjit Singh, said people would attend from 05:00 BST, "maybe even earlier... children, elders, families, people on their own come along".

He added: "They come along for lots of different things. For example, in the morning we have the culmination, the conclusion, of the three days' prayers."

The Langar hall where people sit to eat will be full for celebrations on Saturday

Mr Singh said a 24-hour "recitation of our daily prayer" would begin.

"That normally takes about an hour in the morning, but... tomorrow we'll be doing that for 24 hours as a whole community.

"People who do the prayers... and the making [and] the serving of Langar are all volunteers."

Asked if anybody could come and celebrate Vaisakhi and see what was happening, he replied: "They'll get a warm welcome.

"They don't need to worry about any special arrangements. They can just come along and it's all very natural."