LOTUS TAI CHI

World Tai Chi Day 

This annual event is held on the last Saturday of April open to the general public. All Tai Chi players synchronized world wide playing 8 steps. It begins in the earliest time zones of Samoa at 10 am, and then participants across Oceania, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America take part, with celebrations in eighty nations and several hundred cities, ending with the final events in the last time zones of Hawaii almost an entire day later. Celebrations include mass Tai Chi and Qigong exhibitions and free classes in many participating cities.

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day's stated goals are to:
Educate the world about medical research revealing health benefits with the continuous practice of this tow exercise systems.
Provide a global vision of cooperation for health & healing purposes across geopolitical boundaries, and also an appeal to people worldwide to embrace wisdom from all the cultures of the world.
Thank Chinese culture for the gifts of tai chi and qigong to the world.

WTCD History
The global event began in 1999. However the first event, that inspired the global event, was held in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1998 on the lawn of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in midtown Kansas City, where the Kansas City Tai Chi Club held a mass Tai Chi exhibition and teach-in involving nearly two-hundred people. World Tai Chi and Qigong Day has been officially proclaimed by governors of 25 US states, the senates of California, New York, and Puerto Rico, by Brazil's National Council of Deputies, and officials in several nations.

In 2013 Harvard Medical School launched a series of lectures regarding medical research on tai chi benefits. One of the purposes of this day is "to bring people across racial, economic, religious, and geo-political boundaries, to join together for the purpose of health and healing, providing an example to the world." Millions of people around the world—65 nations participated in 2011—gather one day each year to celebrate the health and healing benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong."

In 2013 the National Council of Deputies in Brazil joined 22 U.S. Governors, the Senates of California, New York, and Puerto Rico and other officials and bodies from around the world in recognizing World Tai Chi & Qigong Day. 

In 2019 Southampton City Council celebrated World Tai Chi & Qigong Day alongside UK Shaolin Temple, who jointly held a free public event in Southampton’s Guildhall Square on Saturday 27 April 2019. The event highlighted the importance of mental health and wellbeing awareness with free Tai Chi and Qigong taster sessions. Near to one hundred attendees sampled a number of simple exercise routines to incorporate into their daily routines. The message of the event also reached hundreds of thousands of people through social media and regional press coverage including the Southern Daily Echo Press and BBC Solent.

This global healing event, in turn, inspired what is now known as World Healing Day.