20 miles north of our home lies the city of Surrey, BC. If you are driving from our home, you might want to allow a half hour to get there due to the time it takes to cross the International Border. Most of the time the border crossing causes about a 5 minute delay, but when there is a lot of traffic it can take a bit longer. Surrey is part of the Metro Vancouver area. It stretches from the US Boarder to the Fraser River. At Peach Arch Park, you can wander across the border without having to go through any customs or immigration offices as long as you remain in the park. If you cross the border, you are in Surrey. I don’t know my way around the city and I don’t know where all of the boundaries exist within the Metro Vancouver area. According to the Internet, Surrey has a population of over 518,000 people.

Yesterday, there was a lot of traffic in Surrey and a lot of traffic traveling from our area and points south towards Surrey. the Surrey Vaisakhi parade drew more than 550,000 people to Surrey. Organizers ay it is the largest celebration of the Sikh religious holiday anywhere in the world. Vaisakhi celebrates the creation of the order of the Khalsa, a defining moment in Sikh history that is said to have given the faith its final form. It is a holy day that marks the New Year for believers.

We did not travel north to witness the parades and crowds, to sample all of the food, or to hear the wide variety of music being performed. The day was busy for us with other activities. I picked up a couple of nuclear colonies of bees first thing in the morning and spent an hour or so getting them installed in new hives in our apiary at the farm. Then I headed to our church where we hosed a large Earth Day gathering with a festival that included display tables, workshops, a panel discussion and more.

My day reminded me of a joke that beekeepers repeat to each other. “Did you hear about the man who told his friend that he tends beehives? His friend said, ‘Oh, so you’re an apiarist! The man responded, ‘No, I’m a Christian.’” I’m a fan of corny puns, so the joke is fairly entertaining to me, And unlike the character in the joke, I’m proud to be both an apiarist and a Christian.

By the time I got to the end of yesterday, I was pretty tired. Some year, however, I hope I get to join the flow of people into Surrey for the Vaisakhi parades and festival. It would be a unique opportunity for me to learn more about the Sikh religion. We have Sikh neighbors just couple of doors down the street from our home and we occasionally stop to chat with them when we are out walking around the neighborhood. but I’m fairly ignorant of much more than having read a bit about the group when I studied world religions.

Sikhs don’t seek to convert people from other religions, but they welcome guests to their worship centers and part of their faith is serving food to those who are hungry. Food booths at yesterday’s celebration distributed food to all who came to the festival. Food for over a half million people is a lot of food indeed.

Although the feel of our neighborhood is much more rural than the nearby cities, we definitely live in a place that is much more densely populated than where we lived in the Dakotas. For the most part we notice the extra population in the form of traffic on the Interstate highway. As was the case in South Dakota, all we have to do to avoid the traffic is to take the back roads.

One of the speakers on the panel at our church yesterday sang the praises of people living in urban areas. Those living in close proximity to other people tend to use less energy because of easy access to shopping areas, the presence of public transportation systems, and the efficiency of providing goods and services through larger stores and service providers. I guess we are part of the continuing trend in the world of more and more people living in urban centers and fewer occupying the empty spaces.

One of the things I treasure about living an a place that is more densely populated is the rich cultural and religious diversity. I enjoy hearing people speak languages different from English when I go to the grocery store. I like having neighbors whose religious practices are different from my own. Since we have so many Sikh neighbors, it makes sense for me to continue to learn more about their faith and practices.

The reason why there are so many Sikhs in this area is that many are recent immigrants who arrived at the Port of Vancouver. Immigration is a major factor in the population growth of the Greater Vancouver area. The area is eager to welcome new immigrants because there is a shortage of people to do all of the necessary jobs. New immigrants are willing to work hard and serve their adopted communities.

Although the dominant calendar celebrates the beginning of the new year near the time of the solstice, it is easy for me to see the reasons why some other calendar systems locate the New Year’s celebration in the springtime. The arrival of warmer and sunnier days has caused the fruit trees to bloom and brought forth the early blooming garden flowers. Those flowers literally brighten up our days. In a way it does feel like a new year. It is a new season of outdoor work and recreation. It is a new season of longer days with more time to linger outside after dinner. There is much that seems new about this particular time.

Ou neighbors are having a huge celebration of the New Year seems to fit well with our recognization of Earth Day and celebrating new commitments to care for the world.

Whatever festivals and holidays you celebrate, may your spring bring you moments of deep joy.