Guru Nanak Gurpurabਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਗੁਰਪੁਰਬ

Guru Nanak Gurpurab is the most widely kept festival in the Sikh calendar: the celebration of the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Guru and the founder of the Sikh faith. Gurdwaras fill before dawn, streets fill with processions the day before, and at Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, the town of his birth, pilgrims gather from across the world. Above the singing and the lights, the day is a return to his teaching: one God, honest work, sharing with others, and service without asking who someone is.

What is Guru Nanak Gurpurab?

A gurpurab is an anniversary day of a Guru, a birth, a succession or a martyrdom, kept with prayer and celebration. This gurpurab marks the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, who was born in 1469 at Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, the village now called Nankana Sahib in present day Pakistan. The day is also called Prakash Utsav, the festival of light, and Guru Nanak Jayanti. Sikhs, Nanakpanthi followers and many others keep it, and in India it is a gazetted holiday in Punjab and in many other states. Of all the gurpurabs of the ten Gurus, this one is celebrated on the largest scale, in Punjab and wherever Sikhs have settled.

When is Gurpurab celebrated?

Gurpurab is celebrated on Puranmashi, the full moon day, of the month of Kattak, called Kartik Purnima in the lunar calendar, and Sikhs have kept the birthday around November for this reason. In 2025 it fell on 5 November. It is one of three Sikh celebrations still worked out on the traditional Bikrami calendar, alongside Vaisakhi and Bandi Chhor Divas, while most other Sikh dates now follow the Nanakshahi calendar. The exact birth date of Guru Nanak Dev Ji has long been discussed by scholars, and some argue for a spring date in Vaisakh, but the full moon of Kattak is the date the community has traditionally kept, and it is the date of the festival today.

How does the celebration begin?

The celebration builds over three days. Two days before Gurpurab, gurdwaras begin an Akhand Path, the forty eight hour unbroken reading of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, read in turns by readers through the day and night, and completed on the morning of Gurpurab itself. In the days around the festival, Prabhat Pheris, early morning processions, leave the gurdwara and walk the streets of the town or neighbourhood singing hymns, waking the community into the celebration before sunrise. Homes and gurdwaras are cleaned, decorated and lit, and in the evening candles and lamps are set out, which is why the day is also remembered as a festival of light.

What happens in a Nagar Kirtan?

On the day before Gurpurab, most towns hold a Nagar Kirtan, a procession of devotional singing through the streets. It is led by the Panj Pyare, the Five Beloved Ones, walking ahead with the Nishan Sahib, the Sikh flag, while the Guru Granth Sahib Ji is carried in a decorated palki, a palanquin, often on a flower covered float. Behind them come teams of singers singing shabads, brass bands, school children, and Gatka teams showing the Sikh martial art with traditional weapons in mock displays. The route is lined with banners, gates and flowers, volunteers serve water and food along the way, and people of every faith come out to watch, to join, or to be served.

The day of Gurpurab

The day itself begins in Amrit Vela, the hours before dawn, at about four or five in the morning. The congregation sings Asa Ki Vaar, the morning hymns, and the diwan, the religious gathering, continues with katha, the exposition of scripture, and kirtan, the singing of hymns in praise of the Guru. Then comes langar, the free community meal cooked and served by volunteers, where everyone sits together and eats the same food, whatever their gender, caste, class or creed: the teaching of equality made visible on the floor of the langar hall. In some gurdwaras the singing resumes at night after Rehras, the evening prayer, and tradition holds that the kirtan reaches its height at about 1:20 in the morning, remembered as the hour of the Guru's birth, ending at around two.

Where is Gurpurab kept biggest?

The heart of the festival is Nankana Sahib, where Guru Nanak Dev Ji was born. Organised jathas, groups of pilgrims, travel from India to Pakistan for the celebrations at Gurdwara Janam Asthan and the town's other childhood shrines, and a Nagar Kirtan fills its streets. In India the largest gatherings are at Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, lit up for the night, and at gurdwaras across Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, including Bangla Sahib and Sis Ganj Sahib in the capital. Kartarpur, where the Guru spent his final years, also draws pilgrims through the Kartarpur Corridor. In the diaspora, gurdwaras in Canada, Britain, the United States and Australia hold the same pattern of Akhand Path, Nagar Kirtan and langar, often on the nearest weekend so working families can take part.

What does Gurpurab ask of those who keep it?

Gurpurab is a birthday, but the celebration points back at the teaching. Three principles of Guru Nanak Dev Ji are named again and again on the day: Naam Japna, remembering God; Kirat Karni, earning a living by honest work; and Vand Chhakna, sharing what you have with others. That is why the festival is as much about the langar queue and the volunteer washing dishes as about the procession: seva, selfless service, and sarbat da bhala, wishing well for everyone, are how the day is meant to be kept. A reader who attends one Gurpurab, eats in the langar and listens to one shabad has met the heart of it.