News & Media
Rose Parade Features First-Ever Sikh Float
Every year on New Year’s Day the Pasadena Rose Parade hits the streets to showcase the history and culture of Southern California and the country at large. This year, for the first time ever, the parade hosted a float that celebrated the important and little-known history of Sikhs in America — and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Rose Parade 2015: First Sikh Float Aims To Spread Awareness About The Faith
For the first time in 126 years, Sikhs will have a float at the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on Thursday. The float, presented by the United Sikh Mission, aims to educate the general public about a religion that is often mistaken as a Muslim sect and is a target of hate crimes because of it.
Sikhs See Rose Parade Inclusion as Sign of Broader Acceptance
After years of lobbying, a coalition of Sikh Americans are hoping a float in the New Year’s Rose Parade will lead to greater acceptance of Sikhs in in the U.S.
“For the first time in our Sikh American history, 125 years of Sikh American heritage will be on display at the Rose Parade,” said Jasjit Singh, Executive Director, SALDEF (Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund).
Sikhs use Rose Parade float in effort to build understanding
When Minu Kaur Singh walks down the street with her husband and children, she hears the comments as people pass by.
Her husband is a doctor but what people notice first is the long beard and turban he wears, following the tenets of their Sikh religion.
“It’s not that people do it intentionally,” she said. “It’s fear of the unknown.”
Signs of a changing nation amid Rose Parade floats and bands
In the dark hours after the new year was rung in, hundreds of families had already staked out places along Colorado Avenue in Pasadena, camping out on the sidewalk through the chilly night. Some had propane heaters; some had barbecue grills fired up; some had set burn barrels aflame; most looked a bit daunted by the unusual Southern California cold.
Children were burrowed into blankets and sleeping bags. They huddled together along the curb or in the entryways of closed stores. Tipsy revelers rambled by, hooting and hollering, while the thump of music spilled out of neighborhood nightclubs. The kids looked more tired than happy, but their parents must have believed a little misery is a reasonable price for a front row seat at the annual Tournament of Roses Parade.
Rose Parade to include Sikh float for first time in history
The 2015 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, will feature a flower encrusted Sikh float for the first time in the parade’s 126-year history.
It’s estimated that 700,000 Sikhs live in the U.S.. According to NBC News, Rashpal Dhindsa — founder of the United Sikh Mission — believed that participation in the famous New Year’s Day parade would help Americans across the country to better understand Sikh culture.
The float will be modeled after Stockton Gurdwara, a 100-year-old place of worship located in Stockton, California.
Sikh Americans tell their story with first-ever Rose Parade float
A couple weeks before the Rose Parade, its first Sikh-themed float was still very much under construction in a Pasadena warehouse. Rashpal Dhindsa’s humanitarian group, the United Sikh Mission, is sponsoring the float and if he was nervous, it wasn’t showing.
Tournament of Roses parade steps off in unusually cold conditions
A cold snap that hit the West had temperatures a notch above freezing hours before the start, but not cold enough to snap the 1952 record of 32 degrees.
“I dressed in four to five layers,” said Paul Josephson, who worked as a volunteer to clean up after horses. “The problem with L.A. is that it’s cold in the morning, then hot. So you’re going to want to strip out of that down coat after a couple of hours.”
Spectators may have shed some layers as the sun lit up the bright floats woven together with roses and carnations and other plant material, but signs of the chill were abundant as marching bands, and color guards danced their way past hundreds of thousands of spectators and a live TV audience.
Study shows Sikhs in America are still victims of misunderstanding and prejudice
The 500,000 Sikhs who live in America are often misidentified as terrorists by fellow citizens who know little or nothing about the traditional faith, a new study revealed.
In response, the Sikh organization that sponsored the study hopes to raise between $3 million and $5 million for an educational campaign aimed at erasing prejudice.
Sikhs hope first Rose Parade float spreads awareness
A lofty idea percolated to the top of Rashpal Singh Dhindsa’s mind eight years ago, possibly naively, as with any other red-blooded American.
“I thought Rose Parade is good to tell people who we are. I don’t know of any other parade. Where we gonna go to tell everybody who we are? We just try what we know,” said Dhindsa, a Fontana resident and member of the Sikh religious community.
And so he did.
ROSE PARADE: Inland residents participate in annual tradition
“Inspiring Stories” is the theme of the 126th Rose Parade, and some of those mobile tales – sad and joyful, educational and adventurous, all festooned with flowers – are connected to the Inland Empire.
Sikh Americans in Fontana building Rose Parade float to celebrate group’s heritage
For a faith group trying to spread awareness and understanding about its American heritage, there’s no bigger platform than the Rose Parade.
The heritage of Sikh Americans will be reflected and celebrated on a Rose Parade float on Jan. 1 in front of a global audience of 80 million people. The idea for the float sprang from a mission undertaken by Rashpal Singh Dhindsa, founder and president of theUnited Sikh Mission in Fontana, to spread more public awareness about Sikh Americans and the Sikh faith, which began in India. Elements of the float reflect the 125-year history of Sikh Americans, from their beginnings in agriculture and railroad work, to their involvement today in the fields of law, public safety, the military and academia, among many other endeavors.
ROSE PARADE TO FEATURE SIKH-AMERICAN FLOAT FOR 1ST TIME
For the first time in its 126 year history, the Rose Parade will feature a float dedicated to Sikh-Americans.
With New Year’s Day just around the corner, preparations for that float and all the others are well underway. Volunteers with Phoenix Decorating Co. were hard at work Friday at two huge warehouses in Pasadena.
Brian Dancel with Phoenix Decorating Co. said over 2,000 volunteers showed up Friday alone, and even more are expected to come out and roll up their sleeves all the way up to the big day.
Dancel said the United Sikh Mission is very proud to present their float for the first time this year.
2015 Rose Parade Preview #1
Today, Gayle featured the FARMERS INSURANCE ROSE PARADE FLOAT: Dream Big: World of Possibility; the AMERICAN ARMENIAN ROSE FLOAT ASSOCIATION: Cradle of Civilization; the UNITED SIKH MISSION: A Sikh-American Journey; and ODD FELLOWS AND REBEKAHS: Always Remember.
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE EVENT THAT A SIKH FLOAT WILL BE A PART OF THE 2015 ROSE PARADE.
As reported by Pasadena’s Gayle Anderson for channel KTLA5, there will be a float with a Sikh theme in 2015’s Rose Parade. It is being sponsored by the United Sikh Mission, a humanitarian group headed by Rashpal Dhindsa, who was present at the warehouse where the float is under construction. Dhindsa is a businessperson based in Fontana who says he has had great interest in the parade since his relocation from India to the US in the late 1980’s.
Film student to represent Sikh Americans in Rose Parade
Harjus Sethi, a second-year graduate student of Chapman’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, has been chosen to ride on the first-ever Sikh American float in the 2015 Rose Parade on New Year’s Day.
Sethi was selected by the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, United Sikh Mission, SikhLens and the Khalsa Care Foundation.
Historic first: Float on American Sikhs in Rose Bowl Parade
Held in California every New Year’s day, the annual Rose Bowl Parade is a huge part of America’s New Year celebrations enjoyed by all cultures in the country. In the parade, there are a series of decorative floats on a particular theme. This year’s theme is “Inspiring Stories”.
Started in 1890, the 126th edition in 2015 will host, for the first time ever, a Sikh float after years of persuasion from the community in America, which numbers over a million.
Bicky Singh, the founder of SikhLens, reveals, “The historic effort is thanks to eight years of application, spearheaded by Rashpal Dhindsa. This year, our proposal highlighting our Sikh Americans, including 125 years of history and contributions, was on point with the parade’s theme.”