Before the chhaawni of the Nihangs begins its movements, lambs are sacrificed. The meat is served in the evening as maha pershad . These turbans are decorated with steel rings and circular symbols. Though the festival itself is a three-day affair, the movement of devotees carries on for a full week, and hundreds of families come in trucks from as far as Calcutta and Patna in the East, Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, and Nanded in Maharashtra. Proper Punjabi food is served with utmost humility as pilgrims from all castes and walks of life sit together on the ground and eat.
Some villagers organise resting places for the pilgrims.
The equality in langars was the idea of the third prophet, Guru Amar Das, who made it mandatory for the Sikhs to eat at the langar before seeing him. The same applied to the contemporary Mughal ruler, Emperor Akbar, who had called on the guru at Goindwal Sahib. The community kitchen has since been called Guru ka langar . Anandpur Sahib road have been organising such langars for the last 20 years. Gurmit Singh says he started the langar with help from the villagers who were reluctant, but now all he does is set up the place a few days before Hola Mohalla and raw materials like wheat flour, rice, vegetables, pulses, milk and sugar begin to pour in quintals.