The Ninth International Day of Yoga (IDY), 2023 will have its national celebrations ceremony at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. The celebrations will be led by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Ayush Minister of State Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai and several dignitaries will take part in the Yoga Protocol performance on the occasion.

About 15,000 people are expected to participate in the event.

The theme of this year’s IDY is Yoga for Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the Indian concept that means the world is one family.

An initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Yoga has reached every corner of the world during the last nine years. He will lead the Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where more than 180 countries are expected to join the event.

In Delhi, Minister of State for Culture Meenakshi Lekhi will join the IDY event at Purana Qila. The Ministry of Culture staff and officials will take part in the IDY celebrations.

In Nurmahal Sarai, Jalandhar, Punjab, Minister of State for Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal will be the Chief Guest and lead the IDY celebrations.

The International Day of Yoga will have some unique features like Ocean Ring of Yoga, where Indian Navy and merchant ships will organize Yoga demonstrations at ports and vessels of friendly countries in different oceans of the world.

Yoga from Arctic to Antarctica is another feature, in which the Ministry of External Affairs is coordinating with the Ayush Ministry to organise Yoga in countries falling in and around the Prime Meridian line besides UN member countries.

Yoga in the North Pole and South Pole regions will be held in coordination with Ministry of Earth Sciences at Himadri, the Indian research base in Arctic and Bharati, the Indian research base in Antarctica.

Yoga Bharatmala has been conceptualized, where Indian armed forces along with ITBP, BSF, BRO will make a chain of Yoga demonstrations in unison. Yoga Sagarmala will witness yoga along the Indian coast line. There will be Yoga demonstration at the flight deck of aircraft carrier INS Vikrant under the leadership of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

At the national level this year, the International Day of Yoga will try to achieve “Har Aangan Yoga” by enabling observation of Yoga at the village level.  The Prime Minister, in a letter to village Sarpanchs appealed to them to celebrate the Day with villagers in full strength.

Anyone can join the celebrations at his/her nearest Anganwadis, health and wellness centers and schools. Apart from this, around two lakh Common Service Centers, AYUSH Health and Wellness Centers under the National AYUSH Mission, AYUSH Gram will also participate in the celebrations. People will also gather around 50,000 Amrit Sarovar to perform Yoga.

The Ministry of Ayush, in collaboration with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the Ministry of External Affairs is hosting a photography contest “Yoga My Pride” on MyGov.in platform.

National and International participants can upload their photos doing “Yogasanas” along with a caption apt for the photograph. The participants will be awarded prizes in three categories.

This year Yoga-break at workspaces was also introduced by the Ayush Ministry with the aim to get employees de-stressed, refreshed, and re-focused at workspace.

The Y-break @ workspaces – ‘Yoga in chair’ – has been introduced, which can be done while sitting in a chair. All ministries/departments of Government of India have been requested to ask their employees to practice Yoga in chair.

The International Day of Yoga is being celebrated with a whole government approach. All key ministries of the Government of India, State Governments, National and International Leading Yoga institutes & organizations, Universities, Armed forces, NSS & NYK volunteers and other stakeholders are already participating in various run-up activities of the IDY 2023.

Along with them, Indian missions and embassies, UN member countries will also participate in the 9th International Day of Yoga on 21st June 2023.