Holla Mahalla at Riverside, California

Los Angeles, April 04, 2019
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/Amrik Sidhu/ A.Gary Singh

Southern California USA Sikh community celebrated Hola Mahalla at Riverside Gurdwara on Sunday March 31st 2019. The Riverside Gurdwara management invited all southern

California community and did a wonderful job of organizing the event. Gatka (Martial Arts) teams came from as far as Canada.

	GATKA AT HOLLA MOHALLA RIVERSIDE CALIFORNIA	CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO
	HOLLA MOHALLA AT RIVERSIDE CALIFORNIA	CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO

There were plenty of festivities and food for everyone. Mahalla, is a Punjabi word that implies an organized procession in the form of an army column accompanied by war drums and standard-bearers, and proceeding to a given location or moving in state from one place to another.

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Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708) held the first march at Anandpur on 22nd February 1701. Festivities start a day before the second of Chet. In Anandpur Sahib, the festival lasts for three days.

The Guru Gobind Singh made Hola Mahalla an occasion for the Sikhs to demonstrate their martial skills in simulated battles. This was probably done to channel people's energy into a more useful activity. Hola Mahalla became an annual event held in an open ground near Holgarh, a fort across the rivulet Charan Ganga, northwest of Anandpur sahib.

The popularity of this festival may be judged from the fact that out of five Sikh public holidays requested by the Khalsa Diwan, of Lahore in 1889, the Government approved only two - Hola Mahalla and the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. Hola Mahalla is presently the biggest festival at Anandpur.