The Ides of March...

Not quite the Ides of March, which is tomorrow, but led me to learn that March is named in honour or Mars - the god of war. It's amazing how many of the things we take for granted - the names of the days of the week and of the months, the letters of the alphabet, so many things are steeped in ancient history, and we've long forgotten the meanings of most of them.

Well, the god of war will surely be pacified by our next kirtan, this coming Sunday, 20th March and by great good fortune, Jahnavi, who has just returned from a four month tour of America and Australia, with Gaura Vani and As Kindred Spirits, will lead us in chanting.

Jahnavi is a writer, as well as musician, and has been writing a series of articles on Sacred Music for the dance and music magazine Pulse - which turns out to be the first 'talking' magazine!

Jahnavi will be accompanied by her father Kripamoya, also an excellent kirtaniya, who we hope will tell us something about the history of kirtan, and how it is we come to be sitting chanting in Oxford today.

We hope you can join us.

January Kirtan.

Chakrini, who came from London, to lead our January kirtan - a very focussed chanter with a beautiful voice, has recently been on tour in Canada and will also be appearing on the main stage at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival in May. She mentioned to us that her main desire is to spread the message of kirtan in Europe and, to that end, has engagements in Spain, Italy and Bulgaria during the summer. We wish her very well in her endeavours and hope she will come to Oxford again soon. Many thanks Chakrini!