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Hyd to host Grand Festival 23

About 1,200 Freemason members from across India to participate in the 293-year-old Freemason Organisation’s meeting at Imperial Gardens in the city on November 25-26

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Hyd to host Grand Festival 23
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23 Nov 2023 11:17 AM IST

Hyderabad: Hyderabad will host Grand Festival 23, the 293-year-old Freemason Organisation’s meeting. It will be held on November 25-26 at Imperial Gardens in Secunderabad. It is the annual gathering of Freemasons of the Grand Lodge of India. It is hosted by the Freemasons of Telangana.

About 1,200 Freemasons from across India and abroad are expected to participate in the Grand Festival. The delegates from several different Grand Lodges of countries such as the United Kingdom, Scotland, Paraguay, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Russia, Mauritius and others are expected to participate.

It is a historical moment as the Grand Festival is being held in Hyderabad for the first time in the 62-year history of the Grand Lodge of India. Grand Lodge is the apex body of Freemasons in India, which was formed in 1961. Freemasonry traces its roots in India in the early years of the 18th century.

“In 1730, officers of the East India Company held their meetings in Fort William in Calcutta. Hence, it is a historical moment all the Freemasons in Telangana should be proud of,” said Anish Kumar Sharma, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of India. Anish Kumar Sharma is the head of Freemasonry in India.

The local freemasons are organising the ninth leg of ‘Gift-a-Livelihood’, a charity initiative to support talented, hardworking, and poor but who lack the right tools for the job by providing tools necessary to discharge their professional duties on November 24.

“Freemasonry is a moral-building organisation,” Sharma added. “It teaches values and makes good men better. It teaches values such as brotherly love, relief, truth, faith, hope, charity, temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice, virtue, honour, mercy, wisdom, strength, beauty, secrecy, fidelity and obedience.”

Hyderabad has another unique distinction. It has the oldest building ‘Goshamahal Baradari Masonic Building’, which Freemasons in Hyderabad use as their meeting place. It is the oldest building used as a Masonic Temple in India. The meeting place of freemasons is called as Masonic Temple, Grand Master.

Grand Lodge of India (GLI) is the parent body of over 22,000 Freemasons in the country.

Grand Festival 23 Freemason Organisation Imperial Gardensa 
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