On September 21, Salmonberry School participated in its first ever celebration of the International Day of Peace.
This holiday began in 1981, and has been increasingly widely observed since the UN resolution in 2001, designated September 21, as the official global holiday.
Linda presents children of Iraq
At Salmonberry School, students age 3-9 culminated a week-long focus on peace studies with a multi-generational celebration. Elementary students sang songs related to world peace in Spanish. Younger students shared a singing of the Pachelbel Peace Meditation, accompanied by Mary Wachter and Renee Keep’s hauntingly beautiful violins. The ceremony included an extended ritualized world peace affirmation, during which, each child shared a photograph of children from a different country, and all present wished peace for that country. The photographs were hung one by one around a huge festooned rope garland so that the children of the world eventually encircled the participants.
Pachelbel Peace Meditation
The celebration was both joyous and reverent. Students laughed and sang, but also took time for silent reflection. Parents, grandparents and friends joined together to model a community coming together in a gesture of caring, compassion and appreciation for cultures around the world. Salmonberry Art teacher, Andrea Cohen helped older students to create world peace flags. And an oversized photograph of children in Iraq created a focal point for the occasion.
Salmonberry is a school that believes deeply in educating for social justice. Director, Paul Freedman said, “It can be tricky to make social justice issues developmentally appropriate for young learners. In this celebration, the students focused on noticing the commonalities between the world’s children, and the need for what H.H. The Dalai Lama refers to as ‘universal responsibility.’ ’ “This is the kind of caring ethic that Salmonberry’s adult community tries to share with the children,” said Freedman.
Next year, Salmonberry hopes to widen the circle and include other schools and community members in the celebration. Linda Ellsworth says, “Eventually, I would love to share this holiday with all Orcas residents. This year we had pictures from 52 countries. Perhaps next year we can invite the broader community to join us for an early evening event and we’ll include even more countries.”
For more info about the International Day of Peace:
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