Sikhism dates back to a long time ago. Making it more modern, it was introduced near the closing of the 15th Century (Borak 53). Guru Nanak Dev originated it, now making it a minority group. The Sikhs are found generally around northwest India, or Punjab, but can also be found anywhere in the world (Borak 53).

Sikhism has a very rare formation. This religion is a mixture of two other religions, known as Hinduism and Islam. This joining together is known as syncretism (Hopfe 188). The Hindus and Islams began to mix and some thought of joining the two together. Not everyone agreed so they decided to make a new religion with practices from both religions while still keeping Hinduism and Islam separate religions (Borak 54). From the Hindus, the reincarnation of Jesus was put into practice for this newly a

Sikhism doesn't really have any hierarchy that I could find but they do have certain positions. There are ten Gurus who would serve as our priest do, but now they worship what the Gurus taught and by the Scripture (Hopfe 189). Gurus were the leaders. (See pages seven for a listing of the ten Gurus.) Their first Guru who was chosen April 5, 1469, the day Sikhism formed was Guru Nanak, and the last Guru was Gobind Singh Dev from 1666 to 1708 when he died(Guru Nanak Dev). I did not find out why there are not any more Gurus. Gurus are the down face of the heavenly who provide leadership for humans (Philosophy). They still do have anniversaries for the Gurus which are known as Gurpurbs (Philosophy). Gurus used to be very important men.

They take lots of pride in their ceremonies and they believe greatly in following the rules. Taking time out of their schedule to study God helps them realize teaching of the Gurus and helps them act like God would. One type of meditation is Akhand Path. This is a non-stop front to back reading of the Holy Book, or Guru Granith Sahib. This celebrates troubled times like birth, marriage, death, new houses, or Gurpurbs. This reading usually takes 48 hours (Akhand Path). The naming of a child is very important to them. This ceremony is known as Nam Karan. To do this you open a hymnbook to any page and on the page you open to, you use the first letter of the hymn on that page. The first letter of the hymn is the first letter of the child's name. Baptism is known as Amrit Sanskar. The person being baptized must see and accept God. They must also be obligated and know the meaning of God to become baptized. They must look and act like a Sikh before welcomed into the Sikh Community (Amrit Sanskar). They believe funerals are an artless process of God's will. Crying and showing sorrow are a sign of not liking God. Sikhs will usually cremate a person and spread their ashes in a nearby river but sometimes they will bury a person at sea. What's left of a dead person is only their skeleton and their soul is with God, so they do not worship the dead (Funerals). They believe their ceremonies to be very proper.

Sikhism has many of the same characteristics as Christians. The "Name" is very important and we both believe in

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Approximate Word count = 1519
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)