Bandi Chhor Divas

Bandi Chhor Divas is a Sikh remembrance associated with Guru Hargobind Sahib's release from imprisonment and his return to Amritsar. Sikh tradition recounts that when the Mughal emperor agreed to free the Guru, he refused to leave behind the other detained rulers who had come to depend on his presence. A solution allowed as many prisoners to leave as could hold the tassels of a specially prepared cloak, enabling fifty-two rulers to walk out with him. The episode gave the Guru the title Bandi Chhor, ‘Liberator of Prisoners.’ His arrival at Amritsar coincided with a season of lamps and celebration, and the Golden Temple is famously illuminated. The day highlights freedom joined with responsibility: personal release is incomplete if one ignores the captivity of others. Gurdwaras mark it with kirtan, prayer, seva and communal gathering.

Bandi Chhor Divas is significant to the community that observes it and helps preserve religious, family and cultural continuity.

The Golden Temple is lit and there are fireworks over the pool. Gurdwaras elsewhere keep it with kirtan and langar, and the lamps at home are the same lamps as Diwali's with a different reason behind them. Bandi Chhor is the release of prisoners, and that is the name the day is asked to be called by.

Falls on the Diwali new moon, and the Golden Temple's illumination is the largest of the year. Sikhs keep it as Bandi Chhor Divas rather than as Diwali, and the distinction is made deliberately: the same lamps, a different reason.