January 1, 2009
New Year’s Day Japathon was a much anticipated opportunity for the community to gather together under the banner of the Holy Name. 

We had wanted to start the New Year by chanting one name of Krishna or Rama for every resident of Utah Valley, around 300,000. We far surpassed that target by accumulating 584 rounds during the course of the day. That number of rounds comes to 502,864 Holy Names. Most chanted at home before coming to the temple for an arati at noon, lead by Jai Krishna. A sumptuous feast was served downstairs, which included samosas, lasagna, rotis, and many items thoughfully delivered by Avtar and Rakesh Singh of Star of India restaurant. They added to the feast channa, rice, kheer, badam, and sabji. Fortified by the prasdam, everybody chanted together throughout the afternoon in the temple room. Visitors were loaned japa beads and asked to chant at least one round. All together there were 43 participants. It was a great event, lot of fun, and a good spiritual “jump start” for the New Year.

Lisa 62, Vaibhavi 51, Keshava 40, Caru 39, Hanuman 36, Alanath 32, Yashoda 30, Jai Krishna 27, Jon 24, Dan 22, Sandhya 20, Nandarani 19, Ranjan 18, Tota Gopinath, 16, Mahendra 16, Troy 16, Andrew 16, Jeanette 12, Sunil 11, Celia 10, Sherry 10, Katie 10, Stephen 9, Wendy 8, Andy 4, Rakiv 5, Jerry 2, Jay 2, Patrick 2, and chanting 1 round each were:  Raj, Bobby, Sai, Janaki, Svapna, Prachi, Deba, Aman, Ekta, Sahiba, Prakash, Bebal, Dharmendra, Alok, Ashul, Sitaram, Grand Total 584 Rounds, 504,576 names of Krishna and Rama.