Students danced away to Baruch College’s first “Jaggo Night,” a festive recreation of a Punjabi pre-wedding party by the Baruch United Sikh Association, which took place in the Multipurpose Room on March 15.

A Jaggo celebration is traditionally held one or two nights before a Sikh wedding, and its purpose is to announce to a whole community that someone is getting married.

President of the United Sikh Association Rajbir Singh expressed his desire to showcase Punjabi culture through the event.

“A wedding is a very beautiful thing. When two people come together and commit to each other, we have to celebrate that,” said Rajbir.

“And Jaggo is the night before the wedding day so that people become excited for the event, people take the street with loud music, lights and drums so that people in the neighborhood know that something special is going on.”

“We wanted to show people how Punjabi people party and celebrate weddings,” said Rajbir. “It was a lot of work but it was well worth it.”

Association member Karandeep Kainth claimed that this was the first “Jaggo Night” attempted at any CUNY campus.

“We just pretty much want to set a standard for all CUNY schools,” said Kainth. “And this is pretty much the time for every college student to be stressed with midterms so we can have a party, just to get together, with free food, fun and everything.”

Gurleena Singh, a student who performed at “Jaggo Night,” said she felt very proud and happy to be able to share her Punjabi culture with the Baruch community.

“I truly enjoyed seeing people from different backgrounds embracing our culture and gaining knowledge on Jaggo,”
said Gurleena.

“I loved being a part of the Bhangra performance, especially since it’s one of my many passions. I believe that in ways like this, we can keep our culture alive and pass it down to future generations.”

Anum Sheikh, another student who was doing henna tattoos for participants, was happy that the event was such a diverse experience.

“I always do henna for people around Baruch but doing henna at this event, seeing non-South-Asian students come, wanting to do henna,” said Sheikh, “really makes me excited.”

“It really spreads a lot of cultural awareness and I know that Baruch is a really diverse school,” said Sheikh. “So when we have events like this, different clubs come to support one another and that is a good way for people to not only stick within their cultural groups but to expand.”

Rajbir said he was expecting a decent turnout but was surprised by the amount of students who came out to the event. “Baruch responded to the event so positively that there weren’t enough plates,” he said.

“The most amazing part is that Baruch showed up,” said Rajbir. “Everyone in Baruch, whether they are black, white, brown, purple, they all showed up.”

The United Sikh Association performed a grand entrance to recreate the celebration by bringing in drums and dancing to loud and exciting music.

“We brought in a lot of drums, we made a lot of noise and the audience responded the same way,” said Rajbir.

“They made a lot of noise. People were not reluctant to participate. What I saw from Baruch today is something that I want to see from Baruch every day.”