Sikh Religious Society Organizes Two -day Conference in Chicago to Implement Mool Nanakshahi Calendar

Midwest conference become International Conference

“It takes a Village to raise a child; it takes a nation to raise a Sikh. Midwest conference turns out international conference with delegates and speakers from Canada, Australia, India and other U.S. states”

Chicago, IL: Sikh Religious Society hosted a two-day Mool Nanakshahi Calendar Implementation Conference
at 1280 Winnetka St, Palatine, IL 60067, IL. The conference kicked off with a welcome dinner attended by the distinguished speakers of the conference as well as guests from various Sikh organizations in the US, Canada, India, and Australia. The welcome dinner, managed by S. Amardev Singh, featured a brief snapshot of what issues the speakers will cover during the conference.

The focus of the conference was how to preserve the unique Sikh heritage and prepare the Panth for the next millennia. The expert speakers explained the history and importance of the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar. Sardar Pal Singh Purewal, the brain behind the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar talked about the efforts he has made to create awareness about the practicality of the calendar and emphasized how important it is for next generations to adopt it.

Bibi Jasbir Kaur (Ohio) threw light on the need of passing the heritage on to the next generation in order to secure Sikh identity. She talked about how important it is for kids to understand Gurbani, and apply it in their day to day life. Other speakers at the conference were S. Sarabjit Singh (Sacramento), Prof. Niranjan Singh Dhesi, S. Surinder Singh (Talking Punjab) and Harkirat Singh Ajnoha (Australia).

The speakers stressed upon the role of overseas Sikh community in accomplishing this mission. The conference featured a presentation explaining how the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar works and helps maintain the consistency of the Sikh observations like Gurpurabs, Vaisakhi and so on. Accurate recurrence of these Sikh historical dates and preservation of Gurbani's relevance has profound implication for Sikh generations to come.
According to the speakers, the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar forever fixed drifting Sikh historical Bikrami dates and synchronized these dates with the Common Era (CE) tropical calendar.

The resolutions passed in conference entailed that, in 1999, the Sikh scholars and SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee) introduced the Mool Nanakshahi Calendar, a tropical calendar; on 300th anniversary of Khalsa's Saajna conforming to Gurbani.

Whereas, many Sikh organizations have already been following Nanakshahi Calendar for many years, except for the three dates of : Guru Nanak's Gurpurab , Bandee Chhorrd Divas, and Holla-Muhalla. So the Chicago conference emphasized to fully adopt and forever follow The Mool Nanakshahi Calendar and its methodology to observe Sikh historical events on following fixed annual dates.

A. Guru Nanak's Parkaash purab on April 14th (1-Vaisaakh), Vaisaakhi
B. Bandee Chhorrd Divas on February 12th (1-Phaggan)
C. Holla Muhalla on March 14th (1-Chet), Mool Nanakshahi New Year Day

In the end of the conference, all the speakers unanimously requested all social, cultural, and religious (Panthak) organizations to unify to cherish the unique and blessed heritage ignited by Baba Nanak; and forever preserve it, by making every attempt to fully adopt and implement the Mool Nanakshahi calendar.

Heeding the call of the conference, many Midwest gurdwaras also adopted these resolutions simultaneously.