Today is a special day in the Sikh calendar. I’m not sure of the details – I think its Guru Nanak’s birthday or something like that – but I know its a big deal.

One of my work colleagues invited me down to the gurdwara to see what goes on, and so we went there after shopping in town. We were going to go in the afternoon but ended up going at about 6pm.

What an amazing place. I had seen it from the outside often enough but had never been inside before. In truth its a pretty unimpressive building, but what goes on inside is remarkable.

During this festival one of the Sikh sacred texts, the Guru Granth Sahib I think, is read aloud in its entirety. This is done in two-hour shifts and takes something like 48 hours. Nobody (as far as I know) sits and listens to the whole thing; they just dip in and listen for a while.

When we arrived we took our shoes off, and covered our heads. There was a big box of bandanas for visitors to borrow so I didn’t have to rely on my wooly hat.

We went through to the Darbar Sahib first. This is the room where the holy book lives, and was being read. What happens is you go in, pay your respects to the book and get given a nasty-looking mush of flour and oil, which is actually very tasty, so we did that. Then we sat and listened to the reading for a while. Quite obviously I don’t speak the language in which the book was written so I didn’t understand a word but just hearing it being read in a sing-song voice is strangely hypnotic and peaceful. It would not be hard to get carried away and end up sitting there for ages, but we didn’t.

Instead we went out into the Langar, which is the main communal dining area. This is a seriously cool place. One of the main planks of the Sikh faith is the offering of free food in the Gurdwar to anyone who wants it, and at festival time there is a major catering operation going on there.

We had a tray of various vegetable curries, sweet rice, yoghurt, rice pudding and chapatis. By the time I finished it I was wishing that I had not put a big chicken stew in the oven in the morning, or that we had gone to the temple a lot earlier. After eating we had some Indian tea. That is an experience. It is made with mostly full-fat milk instead of water and has a sort of aniseed flavour to it. Jayne and Charlie loved it, but I wasn’t so keen.

The whole place was packed and getting busier. By the time we left it was getting to be rush hour in there. What surprised me was how many people were there who we know. Several of them I didn’t even know were Sikhs before, because they are not strict – i.e. don’t have beards and turbans.

We all thought it was a great atmosphere. Charlie was asking if this happens every year and I think he is already planning a return visit. While we were there we had a look at some architect plans for rebuilding the Gurdwara in situ. At the moment it is a an old hut which used to be a training centre for welding and which has been extended, but the new plan is for a two storey building with a double height prayer room and much more comfortable dining room.

I can remember sitting on the planning committee when the other Sikh group had an application for their temple. At the time I had no idea of the significance of the community areas and how central the socialising and eating is to the use of the building. Well I know now, and better late than never.

It was a good evening, and now we know what to expect I am sure we will be back there again. None of us in the family are at all religious, with the possible exception of Charlie, but I do enjoy being a tourist in the various religions, and it was much better than this year’s low-key turning on of the xmas lights in the town centre.