International Yoga Day in India

On the occasion of the 9th International Yoga Day - the slogan of this year's event was Yoga for Humanity - the Liszt Institute of Delhi and the Embassy of Hungary in New Delhi invited Delhi diplomats and officials and opinion leaders from the host countries to a joint yoga session, commemorating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

On the proposal of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously declared June 21st as World Yoga Day on the 11th of December, 2014. Meenakshi Lekhi, India's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Culture, was the guest of honour at the 6:30 am programme, which was held a week before Yoga Day due to her engagement on the 21st of June. The Minister shared a post about the event on her Facebook page with 254,000 followers, not for the first time as she is a regular guest and supporter of the Delhi Liszt Institute's programmes.

Prior to the series of practices, which were set up according to international yoga protocol, Mariann Erdő, head of the Hungarian Cultural Institute, said that the event was a tribute to India's 75 years of independence and millennia of yoga tradition, and also commemorated the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, for which the Liszt Institute had designed a special logo. About 70 participants practised yoga on a mat bearing the Institute's logo.

After nearly an hour of yoga, attended by the ambassadors and chargé d'affaires of Lithuania, Macedonia, Estonia, Bhutan and Poland, the participants enjoyed a breakfast and a chat, and learned about the work of a non-profit organisation for disadvantaged children, fifteen of whom took part in the programme.

The success of the event, which is now in its second year, has encouraged the Delhi Liszt Institute to organise yoga day on the 21st of July, 2024. with even more participants, including local and online participants.