People in more than 70 countries around the world will come together for one purpose: to celebrate World Tai Chi and Qigong Day.

For the third time in Hall County, the celebration will be from 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 30, at East Hall Community Center on 3911 P. Davison Road in Gainesville. Light refreshments will be available.

“World Tai Chi Day is a time when tens of thousands of people all around the world do tai chi at 10 o’clock on the last Saturday morning of April,” event instructor Buck Barnes said.

The worldwide event starts in New Zealand and travels across the world through each time zone.

“Every hour people are doing tai chi for 24 hours,” he said. “So it’s a way of connecting all around the world.”

Barnes said tai chi originated in China, but now the form of exercise that uses very slow and controlled movements is taught all over the world.

“This is one time when we can do it together as part of a larger group,” he said, noting the East Hall Community Center teaches tai chi once a week. “We teach tai chi there every Wednesday morning.”

Tai chi will be conducted outside unless it rains. Then the exercise will move indoors.

Buck and Pat Barnes will lead the event, which is targeted toward adults.

“We’ve been doing tai chi for over 16 years now and teaching it for 12,” Buck Barnes said. “We teach several places, not just at East Hall.”

No experience is needed to participate in the free event.

“If you would like to improve balance and flexibility and have a very calming, stress-relieving experience, tai chi is for you,” Barnes said.

For more information about World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, visit www.worldtaichiday.org. For more information about the local event, call 770-932-2126.