DIWALI – the Festival of Light was brought to life at Ridgeway School when the borough’s Sikh community gathered for their monthly celebration last weekend at their Gurdwara.
They were joined by borough Mayor Councillor Joe Baker as well as fellow councillors Wanda King, Pattie Hill. Pat Witherspoon and Bill Hartnett, the leader of the council.
“The Mayor and myself addressed the congregation and following the service we had vegetarian lunch (known as a ‘langar’) together,” said Coun Hartnett.
“It was a great experience and we learnt about the Sikh religion and about the festival of Diwali.”
Coun Baker added: “As my Mayor’s theme is diversity, inclusion, and equality, it was a privilege to attend the celebration of light winning against darkness.
“Diwali is a celebration that teaches us to always have light in our hearts and to keep the darkness away, we can do this by doing good deeds and being kind to our neigbours.”
Cooks Chana from the Sikh community said: “Our fraternity is known as Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sahib Redditch, and we welcome all to share the Langar whenever the congregation meets, usually the last Sunday of every calendar month.
“Our mission is to bring humankind together by meeting regularly and by doing ‘Sewa’ – looking after the needy and less well-off resulting in community feeling in people minds and dropping one’s mask of ego and showing all the abundance of God’s Love at all times.”
