The International Day of Yoga was celebrated by Embassy of India Berne at Waisenhausplatz, in the city centre from 1100-1200 hrs on 21st June, 2015 with the participation of around 100 persons, despite inclement weather. Though we had planned an outdoor event, it was raining here so it was held under tents. The Embassy had joined hands with the six existing yoga schools in the City to celebrate the Day. The Teachers at these schools led the common Yoga Protocol performance and others followed them, after reading out of the message from the Hon’ble Prime Minister for the International Day of Yoga, 2015. As we had planned an outdoor event we could not show the video. The learners/students from these Schools, the local Swiss people, the officers and staff and their families from the Mission and members of the local Indian community joined the event enthusiastically. The programme started with chanting of a shloka from Rig Veda (Aum Samgacchadhvam Samvadhdhvam) followed by twelve asanas. It ended with a shloka from the Upanishads (Aum Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Sarve Santu) chanted by all performing the exercises followed by short meditation.
While there was sizeable crowd present, not all could manage to do the asanas along with the performing group and only those could take part in performing the protocol who had practised them earlier. The event was covered by the Swiss TV – SRF Tageschau and Radio. Many newspapers, on their own, had carried information about the planned performance based on our Press Release. The Radio stations too had a special broadcast on this event.
In Liechtenstein, the concurrent accreditation country, this Mission had associated with the Vaduz based India Club to hold the International Day of Yoga at the Culture Centre, Gasometer in Triesen from 0800-1000 hrs on 21st June, 2015. India Club, had joined hands with two Yoga schools and had even managed to get a resource person from Kerala to lead the performance. About 30 people participated in the performance which combined asanas with meditation, starting with the traditional Suryanamaskar and a discourse on introduction to the history and significance of yoga. The performance was covered by the major newspaper in the country.
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