The Sahaja Yoga Meditation Network’s annual Festival of New Beginnings is taking place on Sunday, May 5, 2024, at the Burlington Lions Club.
This free festival, hosted by the Sahaja Yoga Meditation Network (SYMN) as part of their 100 Seeds of Joy project, features multi-cultural performances, a guided meditation session, a self-realization and energy flow workshop, and collective positive affirmations. The festival begins at 2 p.m. and ends at 4 p.m.
Ioana Popa, SYMN volunteer coordinator for Halton events, who is from Romania, says that this year’s springtime Festival of New Beginnings is very significant because it is also Orthodox Easter Sunday, a holiday that is typically spent with family.
For some immigrants who celebrate Orthodox Easter, though, and don’t have family in Canada, the Festival of New Beginnings is a way to start a new tradition by spending the holiday with community and friends, Popa says.
“It is a wonderful opportunity to come together,” Popa enthuses. “What I really love is that we remove the barriers…together, we enjoy celebrations from other parts of the world.”
That the celebration is scheduled for May 5 is itself a beautiful coincidence, according to Popa. When working to secure a location for the celebration (which SYMN has previously organized earlier in the year), Popa explains, the Lions came back to offer May 5 —which happens to be the official date (back in 1970) of Sahaja Yoga’s beginning.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Popa says.
Then, there’s also the fact that the week of May 6 is Women’s Health Week; Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Popa notes, said that “Women are creators of universes,” and “…when we talk about health,” Popa continued, “spiritual and emotional health is also important.
And really, spiritual and emotional health is at the heart of the 100 Seeds of Joy project, aiming to spread peace and joy through free meditation sessions.
Meditation sessions are a signature piece of any SYMN and 100 Seeds of Joy event, and the Festival of New Beginnings is no different.
Popa says that for this event, she and her team of volunteers also want to share knowledge about three chakras in particular, “the chakras that connect us to the realm of families and peace, bringing us together.”
The festival also offers an opportunity to celebrate Mother’s Day, as well as SYMN’s recent Halton Volunteer Impact Award, and that the UNESCO Body and Mind Wellness Club has reached out to SYMN wanting to learn more about how they might implement the 100 Seeds of Joy project in the U.S. or even further afield.
The multicultural offerings include a Greek dance, typically performed by men, which will be performed by some of the SYMN team (who, for this particular event, just happen to be women); guest artists Ekaterina Lavrentyeva, a Ukrainian singer and artist, and Özlem Gibeau, a dancer and singer from Turkey who as adopted by the Métis (Les Griffons du Kebec) will be travelling from Montreal for the occasion.
To find out more about SYMN, go to their website (click here); for more information on the upcoming free meditation sessions through 100 Seeds of Joy, click here. To join in the free Festival of New Beginnings, RSVP at the 100 Seeds of Joy event page, then head over to the Burlington Lions Club at 471 Pearl St., at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 5, 2024.
