The Yorkton Health and Wellness Expo is all about improving the health of the community, through the body and the mind.
This year, the festival began with a cacao ceremony, facilitated by Brooklyn Berrns and Vinoth Ramanaathan. The ceremony involved singing, meditation and the drinking of a cacao beverage. According to Ramanaathan, the ceremony is very internal, as people work within themselves.
“They say that when people lose connection with nature, when people lose connection with their heart, the spirit of cacao will leave the Amazon forest and will actually go find people’s heart and bring back harmony to people’s heart.”
The cacao itself is called ceremonial-grade cacao, which means it’s unprocessed.
During the ceremony people are encouraged to move with the music, play instruments and dance.
“If we all dance more, the world will be a happier place,” said Ramanaathan.
There were many first-timers at the ceremony, which Berrns was happy to see.
“I think people were definitely nervous and didn’t know what to expect. That’s kind of the great thing, we ask you to release all of those expectations.”
While she leads ceremonies now, when Berrns first experienced one, she was not a big fan.
“My first time, I was ‘ugh, cacao is bitter, I’m not a fan of this bitterness.’ I attended a couple more after because I thought maybe there’s something here, I was a little more interested. I attended a couple more ceremonies from different people to see what they had to offer as well.”
That lead to Berrns taking the training herself as she began to understand more about the ceremonies. Now that she has moved back to Yorkton, she is planning to do more ceremonies in town.
“This is the first time Yorkton has really experienced this... I want to offer to people what I’ve learned and experienced.”
Stacey Tress, organizer of the event, says their goal is to have a weekend where like-minded people can learn from each other in a community.
“The intention of the expo wasn’t just a chance to shop, but it was about education.”
Tress hopes, that at the end of the day, people find something new, whether that’s a new friend, new product, or new connection.
