The High Commission of India in collaboration with the World Hindi Secretariat in Mauritius hosted a virtual celebratory event on Sunday, September 20 on the occasion of National Hindi Day.
High Commissioner of India in NZ Muktesh Pardeshi in Wellington and General Secretary of World Hindi Secretariat and Bharat Darshan magazine, Dr Vinod Mishra from Mauritius joined the online event along with representatives and students of eight community schools teaching Hindi in different locations of New Zealand.
September 14 is observed as Hindi Diwas as the language was officially adopted into the Constituent Assembly of India written in Devanagari script.
In New Zealand, although large gatherings were prohibited under different alert levels in the country, a digital celebration was planned to celebrate the day and acknowledge the selfless works of Hindi schools and teachers who have been working tirelessly to spread the knowledge and learnings of Hindi language amongst the new generation of Kiwi Indians livings.
Participating schools from across NZ were Hare Krishna School, Bhartiya Mandir, Bhartiya Samaj, Ram Krishna Hindi School of Language and Culture, Sanatan Shivcharan Trust Sunday School, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan Hamilton Hindi School, Wellington Hindi School and Southland Hindi School.
Children from the Hindi schools presented poems, songs, puzzles, quiz, speeches, and dance performances during the two-hour virtual event.
As the chief guest of the event, HC Muktesh Pardeshi lauded the efforts of the teachers from different Hindi schools for their selfless service promoting the Hindi language in New Zealand.
Hindi was the fourth most spoken language in New Zealand after English as per Stats NZ in 2018. President of Hindi Language and Culture Trust of New Zealand (HLCTNZ), Satya Dutt said that with 10 percent of the total Indian population, Auckland has the largest Hindi-speaking population.
The Trust has observed National Hindi Language Week in New Zealand 2009 that includes school-based language week programme, national Hindi speech competition for primary and high school students, cultural evening etc.
This year, the National Hindi Language Week will be observed in NZ from 19-24 October.
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