June 21st, 2015 wasn't just Father's day or the Summer Solstice (if you're in the appropriate hemisphere), there was another event celebrated officially for the very first time on June 21st of this year: The International Day of Yoga.
Created by the UN General Assembly in December of last year, it was the first official celebration of a day inspired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a speech to the UN in September of last year, Prime Minister Modi said yoga was "an invaluable gift of India's ancient tradition" that is 5,000 years old and, "embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfilment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being."
This, maintained Narendra, was something worth celebrating... and the UN General Assembly agreed. Which is why on June 21st, as some were opening Father's Day presents and others were hailing the longest day of the year and the arrival of summer, many many (many many) people around the world were getting out their yoga mats and celebrating something entirely different.
In honor of the first official and very successful celebration of this day, we've put together a collection of killer yoga images captured by talented members of the 500px community who contribute their work to the 500px Marketplace.
Captured in yoga studios, forest glens, mountain tops, and even a couple in the largest salt desert on Earth, we think these 21 images represent the sublime art of Yoga in all its glory:
To license any of the images above, just give them a click to head straight to the 500px Marketplace. And if you want to see more, you can find a lot more yoga awesomeness on 500px by clicking here.
A version of this post was published on the 500px ISO blog on June 21st