Take Care of a Plant: 13 Days of Vaisakhi

On day two of our 13 Days of Vaisakhi Countdown, let’s learn about the importance of the spring harvest! While Sikhs celebrate the birth of the Khalsa on Vaisakhi, it’s also an important harvest festival for farmers. Because it falls during the spring season, many farmers are celebrating the successful harvest of the seeds that they planted in the fall. More specifically, around this time is when rabi crops, likely barley, mustard, oat, and wheat are harvested. 

For most of the year, farmers are working hard and tending to their fields. They spend countless hours preparing their soil, planting their seeds, watering their seeds and taking care of their growing plants. They do all of this so that people in their community can have good food to eat. To honour farmers, their hard work, and the harvest we are going to plant something and watch it grow over the coming months. By doing so, we’ll also take part in a Vaisakhi tradition done by our ancestors for ages! 

Conversation Starters about Plants & Vaisakhi

  • What types of jobs do farmers do? (Planting, watering, clearing weeds, harvesting and selling their crops).
  • Talk about the practice of farming and how it’s related to sabar (patience). How is sabar connected to Sikhi? Read more about Sikh history and examples of patience.

Let’s Pot our Plant!

Supplies:

  • terracotta plant pot
  • hearty indoor plant (we suggest a pothos, cactus, or aloe vera)
  • planting soil

Start by painting your planter. Why not use the colours of Sikhi in your project to honour Guru Gobind Singh Ji?

The colours orange and navy blue are important colours in Sikhi and for Sikhs all over the world. The bright orange colour is known as saffron in English and kesari in Punjabi, whereas the navy is known as neela in Punjabi. Both kesari and neela are colours that you will see often in gurdwaras and during Vaisakhi. Often, the nishan sahib, or the Sikh triangular flag, that we see flying high at gurdwaras is also the colour kesari.

Once you’ve painted your pot, it’s time to transfer your plant to the pot. You can either repot it into your painted planter, or simply place the plant inside the pot. If you are a novice plant parent, we suggest the later. Over the next few months, encourage your kids to water the plant one time a week on the same day of the week. This will remind them of the lessons they learned during our 13 Days of Vaisakhi Countdown, and the work that farmers do all year!


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