Building Community in Hamburg
SS Shiva Kaur Khalsa
Hamburg, Germany
‘Der’ Prosperity Paths,
l would like to give you a short report of the ‘3HO 20th Anniversary In Germany Festival’ which took place here in Hamburg on August 31, 1996. As far as I know, this was the biggest 3HO event of its kind in Germany to date.
I undertook the overall coordination for this festival, in part to further my goal of bettering communication within the German community this year, and also acting within my capacity as coordinator for the Arbeitsgemein schaft fur Kundalini Yoga Lehrer / Innen in Hamburg.
It was very exciting and a lot of fun to coordinate an event of this size. We had about 15 mini-workshops throughout the day, all with different teachers. We had greeters, to meet and welcome people as they came into the Yoga Center In Breitenfelderstrasse. We had food galore. A lot of the guests brought something to share, and we supplied some basics, like tea, chips, dips, and cookies. We had turban tying, Celestial Communication, Sat Nam Rasayan, Children's Yoga, several different aspects of Kundalini Yogic practice, partnership the yogic way, several meditations, and topped it all off with a yogic disco.
I estimate that about 300 people came through the doors of both Yoga Centers. The mini-workshops were all well attended. Some were so full that you could hardly get in the door after they began. And everywhere you turned were people attending classes, talking to their friends, enjoying the food and later, dancing up a storm. We stayed dancing until 10 pm.
And while we were busy at the Yoga Center, the other Yoga Center Arbeitsgruppe fur Naturliche Geburt had a full program at Nanak Nivas. They had workshops in pregnancy yoga, yoga after birth, folk dancing, an Invitation to Gurdwara, Gatka, mantra singing and more.
Satya Singh was good to us, in letting us use the yoga rooms to stage the festival. Mahan Deva Singh was the star sevadar, making posters and signs for the doors, putting together the updated list of teachers and classes for the Hamburg area (a huge job in itself), co-teaching the partnership workshop, leading the gong and didgeridoo workshop, coordinating the music for the disco and spending time the day after the festival making sure the Yoga Center was ready for business as usual on Monday. Naturally, he was a great support to me in all that I was doing, and I don’t have to tell you how much that was. Everyone in the sangat helped so much, it was just great!
I have sent thank you notes to all the people who helped In different aspects of the Festival, telling them that I think we can all be very proud of ourselves. We worked very hard and well together, and put together a very wonderful event for the Hamburg community.
With all love in the Divine,
SS Shiva Kaur Khalsa, Hamburg, Germany