World Tai Chi and Qigong Day (WTCQD), also spelled World T'ai Chi and Ch'i Kung Day, is an annual event held the last Saturday of April each year to promote the related disciplines of T'ai chi ch'uan and Qigong in sixty countries since 1999.
The mission of this multinational effort is ongoing, to expose people to the growing body of medical research related to traditional Chinese medicine and direct them to teachers in their home towns. The global WTCQD directory found at www.worldtaichiday.org doesn't screen or recommend the teachers it lists based on any vetting process or discriminate between T'ai Chi Ch'uan or Qigong styles over others. The directory is an open directory anyone can post to.
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day also acts as a public, government, and media source for information on those disciplines, and works in conjunction with such divergent institutions as the National Council on the Aging, The National Parkinson's Foundation Annual Conference, the Fibromyalgia Coalition International, Folsom Prison (Maximum Security Prison in California), Rotary Clubs International, etc.
In 2009, World Tai Chi & Qigong Day will conduct a presentation and lecture on "Tai Chi & Qigong as Preventative Health Tools" to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health in Washington D.C. In 2009 the NIH website announced World Tai Chi & Qigong Day 2009. http://nccam.nih.gov/news/thismonth/april09.htm
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The annual April event is open to the general public, and begins in the earliest time zones of New Zealand at 10 am, and then participants across Oceania, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America take part, with celebrations in sixty 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 t'ai chi ch'uan and qigong exhibitions in many cities, and free classes in most participating cities.
World Tai Chi and Qigong Day's stated goals are to:
1) Educate the world about emerging medical research revealing health benefits that t'ai chi ch'uan and qigong offer.
2) Educate about the increasing use of these ancient traditional Chinese medicine modalities in business, education, penal and drug rehabilitation.
3) 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.
World Tai Chi and Qigong Day events have been recognized by the United Nations World Health Organization (UNWHO) for participation in the UNWHO's "Move for Health" movement, and World Tai Chi and Qigong Day has been officially proclaimed by governors for their states including the US states of California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah. Senates and legislatures have officially proclaimed World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, including the Senate of the state of New York, the Senate and Legislature of the state of New Jersey, California's State Assembly, and in 2005 the national Senate of Puerto Rico proclaimed "Dia Mundial de Tai Chi y Qigong" (World Tai Chi and Qigong Day) for Puerto Rico.
Mayors of many major cities have also officially proclaimed World Tai Chi and Qigong Day for their cities, including South Buenos Aires (Argentina), Austin Texas, Osasco (Brazil or Brasil), Cupertino (California), El Paso (Texas), Hastings (Nebraska), Pemberton and Willingboro (New Jersey), Patchogue & Rochester (New York), San Angelo (Texas), Scranton & York (Pennsylvania), St. Louis (Missouri), St. Augustine (Florida), Toledo (Ohio), Asheville (North Carolina), and Suffolk County (New York).
In 2009 the founders of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, Bill Douglas and Angela Wong-Douglas, were inducted into the Internal Arts Hall of Fame at an official induction ceremony of the 34th annual Zhang San Fang Festival in New York.
The event's international organizing center provides information on Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong, including health research, information on how Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong relate to traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), what people new to Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong can expect when they attend classes, and video and audio samples of various Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong exercises and forms. The site also provides links to Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong publications, associations, schools, and groups in many states and countries, with a searchable database that lists schools by their country or US state. The site is viewable in nine languages with translation instructions via Yahoo! Babel Fish, although the translations can be difficult to decifer at times, but still useful.
The local events are independently organized by local Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong schools, groups, and associations. The format of events varies by locality, although most involve free classes and mass exhibitions. International organizing for the event is done at the World Tai Chi and Qigong Day office in Overland Park, Kansas.
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. CNN Headline News covered the event, which generated interest beyond Kansas City to quickly grow into a national and international event in the following years.
This global healing event, in turn, inspired what is now known as World Healing Day.
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