Vijayawada to host yoga mahotsav 2026 countdown event on May 12

Vijayawada’s yoga calendar turned civic on May 12 as a 40-day Yoga Mahotsav 2026 countdown opened at Ashok Function Hall in Nunna, near the Yogeshwar Devidayal Mahadev Jyotirlinga Devasthanam, with the 7:30 a.m. gathering positioned as part of the larger run-up to International Yoga Day 2026.

Swami Amit Dev Ji Maharaj of the Sri Yoga Abhyas Ashram Trust announced the programme, while event pamphlets were unveiled alongside School Games Federation NTR district secretary T. Srilatha and astrology scholar Dr. Mamillapalli Phanikumar. The lineup made clear that this was not just a local yoga meet. It pulled together religious leadership, school sport circles and community figures in the service of a national campaign.

That wider campaign had already been set in motion on March 13, when the Ministry of Ayush and the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga launched Yoga Mahotsav 2026 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi as the start of the 100-day countdown to the 12th International Day of Yoga. The ministry said 100 organizations were promoting yoga in 100 places and cities across the country, and DD News reported around 1,500 participants at the launch, including more than 1,000 yoga enthusiasts in a live Common Yoga Protocol demonstration. The ministry also unveiled 10 Yoga Protocols for Non-Communicable Diseases and target groups, along with a five-minute Yoga for Air Travel routine, while MDNIY signed a Yoga 365 MoU with Habuild for free daily online sessions.

Andhra Pradesh has been folded into that mobilization in a big way. On May 5, Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav held a preparatory meeting in Vijayawada, directing officials to bring in students, employees, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs and other voluntary groups, with district-level events planned under collectors and a state-level programme set for Amaravati. The Nunna countdown fit that pattern neatly, turning yoga into a public-facing campaign rather than a private practice.

The May 13 follow-up showed how far the mobilization had spread. Nearly 200 yoga practitioners and students took part in the Countdown-40 programme, which included ceremonial lamp lighting, yoga demonstrations and purification practices such as Sutra Neti, Jala Neti and Gajakarni. With trainers and students linked to local Ayush facilities, plus yoga trainer Shashikant from Delhi and several local yoga gurus and instructors, the event aimed to spread awareness of yoga, holistic health, spirituality and Indian yoga traditions. In Nunna, the countdown did exactly what the national launch intended: it moved International Yoga Day from a date on the calendar into a staged public observance.