Events

Youth Centre and YouthLink’s annual end-of-year fair took place on 21 December, attracting a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd. The organisers of Fair and Square (as the event was called) focused their efforts on showcasing the Youth Centre space as a vibrant social centre – or town square – prominently located on the Crown road.

February is the time when we celebrate Mother’s birthday and the birthday of Auroville, as well as, this year, the ‘Golden Day’, and we enjoy a plethora of events and inaugurations.

As usual, February has experienced a plethora of cultural and other events. These included performances by the Auroville Choir, an international conference on the revival and promotion of Sanskrit, a four day gathering in Unity Pavilion entitled Toward a Collective Awakening: Experiments in Evolution conceived as a follow-up to the Summit held in Auroville in February 2023 to facilitate consciousness change at a collective, The Auroville Festival – a weeklong festival including discussions on diverse topics and daily cultural performances – the Shakti Kumbh event in Unity Pavilion entitled Regenerative Renaissance of Mother India: Revitalising Bharata Shakti, three conferences on the relationship between spiritual and social life organised by the Pavillon de France, yoga activities, chanting and sound meditation in the Matrimandir Amphitheatre, a chanting and bhajan performance at SAWCHU, and a week of events in Mother’s Flower Garden.

Youthlink, which is a diverse group of youth from Auroville who work towards creating a positive impact in Auroville, invited all residents to a ‘Blind Babble Event’ on 14th Sept.

A new team – Axum, Elene, and Malcolm – has recently stepped forward to manage the African Pavilion, one of the more prominent pavilions in Auroville’s International Zone, due both to its high-visibility location next to the Visitors’ Centre and its regular cultural events.

On 23rd February, a one day event, The New Creation Emerges, was held in Bhumika Hall. The morning was a very special one as ten young Aurovilians shared about their lives and aspirations.

A number of women from the villages that surround Auroville and come to Auroville for work feel that the Tamil Aurovilian women are somehow different from them and there is a lack of connection.

The highlight of this year's 50th anniversary bonfire was undoubtedly the moving water ceremony. Srimoyi, a member of the Matrimandir Events Team, describes on behalf of the team how it came about.

Dev Mohanty describes the trials and satisfactions of live streaming Auroville’s 50th events.

YouthLink celebrated Auroville’s 50th Anniversary by launching two of its projects, the Hive and the Joy of Impermanence.

The Meditation and Water Ceremony

A volunteer at Village Action (AVAG) shares her experience of this year’s Women’s Solidarity Festival

Auroville recently hosted a two-day festival to celebrate Tamil heritage and culture, a first of this scale and vision. The brainchild of Balu from Mohanam Cultural Centre, and Meenakshi from Auroville’s Tamil Heritage Centre and Ilaignarkal School, the festival brought together artisans, performers, farmers, VIPs and visitors for festivities on Auroville land.

Gora, an awakened Indian mystic, was a potter. When his disciples grew in numbers and included kings and nobles, they told him to stop his pottery work as it was not appropriate for a master.

Auroville Radio celebrated its 11th anniversary on December 5th this year. Despite their busy schedule in the months of November and December, and having to help set up Peridar Kaala Vaanoli (‘Radio in the Time of Extreme Calamity’ in Tamil), a temporary emergency FM radio station for the flood-hit Cuddalore, Andrea and Renu share their stories from Auroville Radio.

For three nights in late September, the venerable premises of the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium were invaded by assorted mice, rats and cats who gambolled, strutted, cartwheeled, yawned, danced, insinuated and sang their way across the boards.

With over 210 participating Aurovilians, the Auroville Singing Festival 2014 was doubtless the year’s largest cultural event. Spread over two evenings in October, with Bharat Nivas auditorium bursting at its seams, more than 36 groups and soloists showed their talents.

Last School, that hotbed of a bright new wave of young Aurovilians destined, come the year 2001, to take our citadel by storm, was the site, in this pleasant month of December, of two events worth noting: India Week, and the third annual Last School Fair.