The massive Vaisakhi celebration is taking place all day today in Surrey, with road closures along 128th and 124th streets, as well as along 82, 80, and 76 avenues.

It comes a week after the much smaller Vaisakhi parade in Vancouver, which drew Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

This weekend, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh joined the festivities, perhaps with an eye to recapturing seats that his party lost to the federal Liberals in the 2015 election.

The image below offers insights into how crowded this event gets, particularly along the narrower streets along the route.

https://twitter.com/SurreyTraffic/status/1119699720727859200

Vaisakhi is the traditional harvest festival celebrated in India.

It has special meaning for Sikhs because at this time in 1699, Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa, which was a military order with a mission to protect people from oppressive rule by the Moghuls.

The Khalsa not only offered comfort to Sikhs, it also aided Hindus who were being oppressed by orthodox priests or being forced to convert to Islam.