Christmas Solstice Celebration
Community Dinner & Giving Circle
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Celebrate life, share your light. Join Mandy, Robert and the Kookaburra community as we celebrate the Summer Solstice and Christmas. This free family-friendly event includes kirtan, meditation, an earth prayer, chanting, a joyful circle dance and a giving circle at our beautiful sanctuary, followed by a shared community dinner. Bring a gift for the giving circle, and vegetarian food to share. Come alone, come with friends, come with kids, all are welcome.
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the joy of giving and receiving
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Saturday 21 Dec 4pm-8pm Our annual Christmas & Summer Solstice Celebration at beautiful Kookaburra Creek in the Perth hills is a joyous annual end-of-year event. It is our way of bringing together a community connected by yoga, compassion, kindness, joy and optimism for the future year ahead. Together we share our light and love for the earth, and take this moment in time to simply connect and be content.
Over the years many wonderful people have graced our studio, attended programs and retreats, and we would love to celebrate with you all at this joyful, soulful and deeply meaningful end-of-year event. Come alone, come with family, come with friends - everyone is welcome. The program is family friendly - you are welcome to bring kids, grandkids, parents, friends. The more the merrier! The program commences at 4pm with music, chanting, a solstice meditation, an earth puja (offering to the earth), followed by a Giving Circle where everyone receives a heart-felt gift. Following this is a yoga circle dance where we come together in a circle to sing the Gayatri and join in a solstice inspired circle dance. Giving Circle Everyone brings a gift for the giving circle which is something you've created from the heart. There is so much energy and beauty in the creation and sharing of gifts. Please make your gift yourself - it could be hand-drawn, handwritten, found in nature, planted, baked, edible (vegetarian) - so everyone leaves with an earth-friendly and meaningful gift from the heart (no plastic or waste). For the kids Within the main giving circle, kids will be invited to form an inner circle to give and receive a child-friendly present. Please help your kids to create something special to bring joy to the heart of another. Shared dinner Bring a plate of vegetarian food to share for a lovely, festive community Christmas dinner in the moonlight of our courtyard garden. Summer Solstice The solstice and full moon is on this day Saturday 21 December and we bask in the solstice energy and light. We celebrate the longest day of the year and the peak intensity of solar energy here in WA. Solstice in Latin means sun-stopping, and as we gather and pause for a moment, we feel connected to nature, each other, and to the earth itself. The ancients believed that the solstice was an important moment for meditation when the veil between this world and the spiritual grew thin. In the yogic and vedic traditions the sun is revered as a symbol of the Divine - an eternal source of light, nourishment and giver of life. Gatherings and rituals at this time are a way of harnessing the revitalising energy of the Sun, expressing our gratitude for the abundance of nature at the peak of its annual cycle and celebrating the pinnacle of our own annual cycle of growth and renewal. |
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Song for circle dance
Festive Gayatri Mantra
Have the words of this song handy for the event, or even better listen along and learn it in advance! Download the pdf for the words, music and dance details.
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Om Bhuhr | Om Bhuvaha | Om Swaha | Om Maha | Om Janaha
Om Tapaha | Om Satyam | Oh Oh Om | Om Tat Savitur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi | Dhiyo Yonaha Pracho oh dayah “O Self-effulgent Light that has given birth to all the lokas (spheres of consciousness), who is worthy of worship and appears through the orbit of the Sun, Illumine our intellect.” Invoking (connecting to) the seven spiritual planes (lokas) of light and asking for spiritual assistance from all beings who have ever been enlightened.
This Sanskrit mantra is used by many yoga practitioners, Hindus and even Buddhists all over the world. 
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Event Details
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Saturday 21 December. 4pm-8pm. Kookaburra Yoga
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What to bring
- gift for the Giving Circle. Everyone to bring something (even kids) to give. It could be home-made, hand-drawn, handwritten, from nature, planted, grown, baked - so everyone leaves with an earth-friendly and meaningful gift from the heart (no plastic or waste)
- vegetarian food to share for a community dinner