Report by Grace
On Wednesday the 13th of June we visited the Sikh temple in Gravesend. We have been learning about it a bit in RE. After going to a synagogue on another trip before we weren’t sure what to expect.
Once we were there we took off our shoes and washed our hands. We did this so that we could let go of all our worries from outside the temple. We also put a headscarf on so that we would only be thinking about the things we were doing and our mind wouldn’t be thinking about anything else.
We then walked up some stairs and went into a big room with lots of people kneeling down and a lady reading from the Guru Granth Sahib which is their holy book. She was sitting on a platform that looked a bit like a bed. They used this to rest the Guru Granth Sahib on. We walked around the whole room and up an aisle.
We also tried some Karah Parshad which was made out of flour, butter,sugar and water. Sikhs do not like to throw this away because they find it disrespectful. It tasted a bit like weetabix. I didn’t like it very much because it was quite plain and watery.
After that we went into a room that is usually used for praying in and the lady told us some things and we asked her some questions. She told us about the five K’s * which are a comb, a sword, a bracelet, uncut hair and big underpants. She also told us that in their holy book they don’t say pages but they say parts because they treat it like a teacher and people don’t have pages but they do have parts.
*Kesh (uncut hair), Kara (a steel bracelet), Kanga (a wooden comb), Kaccha - also spelt, Kachh, Kachera (cotton underwear) Kirpan (steel sword)
Once we had finished talking we went downstairs and got into groups. We sat on the floor in a circle and were served curry sauce and some naan bread type thing. They call this langer. They serve free food because Sikhs believe that everyone is equal. It was very nice and we were even served seconds.
Overall it was a great trip and I learnt a lot from it. It’s was very interesting to see how different somebody else's life can be from your own. The curry was really nice and everyone there was really nice.
Report by Arienne
On the 13th of June year 6 went to the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara. We have been learning about Sikhism in RE but before this we also went to a Jewish temple so we could compare the two.
When we first saw the temple we were amazed at how big it was, but when we went inside we were even more amazed when we went inside and saw the huge tile covered domes.
We walked into a room where we saw lots of headdresses on chair that we had to put because it is sign that we are connecting our brains with our bodies and listening to everything that the guru Granth Sahib reader says. The guru Granth Sahib is the Sikh’s holy book. We also had to take our shoes off to show respect to their god and that we respect the Gurdwara. After this we had to wash our hands to show we were leaving our troubles behind so we could just be peaceful.
We walked up the stairs and went into a room where a reading was taking place. We had to walk with our hands in front of us, but especially not behind our backs or in our pockets. When we were closer to the woman reading we got down on our knees, touched our foreheads on the ground and stood up straight away. This is the Sikh's way of praying, she said we didn’t have to pray like this, but most of us did.
After this we went into an empty room and the woman who had been showing us round talked to us for about an hour about the 5 ks which are: Kanga (a comb, which symbolizes that the get the knots out there hair like they get the knots out of their life), Kesh (uncut hair, which shows that they respect god’s creation), Kara ( a steel bracelet, which reminds them of god every time they look at it), Kirpan ( a steel sword, which is to defend themselves or others that are weaker than them) and Kaccha (cotton underpants which they tie a knot in which symbolizes starting a new day and leaving behind yesterday's wrong doings).
After talking about these things we got a small bit of parshard which has exactly the same amount of ingredients in it to show equality. It was made out of: water, sugar, butter and whole-wheat flour. It tasted a bit like weetabix with lots of sugar in it.
After this we had more food but something a bit bigger this time. We had a tray of flat bread and a spicy sauce. This food is free and is called langar. We had to share the tray between five and demolished it in seconds; but luckily we were allowed seconds.
We came to the end of our meal so we went down the stairs and put our shoes back on and took off our headdresses. We said thank you to the woman that showed us round and walked out the doors.
Overall this trip was really fun and it was great to find out more interesting facts about sikhism. Thank you to Mr.Brown for taking us on this great trip.