The International Day of Yoga is to be marked for a 4^th year in a row. The holiday was established end-2014 by the UN General Assembly after a proposal of India’s PM Sri Narendra Modi and the longest day of the year – the one of the summer solstice, was selected for the annual celebration. Bulgaria participated actively yet in the first year, when lectures and practice sessions took place at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia and across a dozen of other cities and towns. This year the festive series of events will be locked in the period June 21 – 24^th in Sofia and 35 other settlements.

The official holiday in the capital city will be on June 24^th at the Inter Expo Center, under the auspices of Indian Ambassador to Bulgaria Ms. Pooja Kapur. Bulgarian Vice President Mrs. Iliyana Yotova will be an honorary guest of the event.

Anyone interested will have the chance to attend lectures and discussions, related to the different aspects of yoga and Ayurveda’s millennia-old traditions. Two of the halls will host yoga practices, showing the major schools and also yoga for kids, pregnant yoga and aged yoga – all this headed by experienced instructors. The guests will be invited to taste in the lobbies special Ayurveda meals and will get acquainted with health products of renown companies. The event will last till 6 pm and all halls can be visited for free.

‘The reason why the world recognizes yoga as an extraordinary value of human culture is rooted somewhere in the depths of knowledge on mankind and its natural self-realization via well-developed, millennia-old practices for the body, mind and intellect. The recognition of yoga is also based on the fact that in the modern world it is practiced on a large scale, globally. It is not only a tool against, but an absolute alternative to the stressful way of life and the natural susceptibility of man to stress,’ the event’s organizers from the East – West Indological Foundation have written on its webpage. They have been working on the preparation and holding of the fest together with the Embassy of the Republic of India to this country, also with the Bulgarian Yoga Federation, the Bulgarian Yoga Association and dozens of other foundations and yoga clubs.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev