PEACE SYMBOL

:'' 'Peace sign' redirects here. For the hand gesture called the "peace sign", see V sign.
A 'peace symbol' is a representation or object that has come to symbolize peace. Several different symbols have been used throughout history, of which the dove, olive branch and the nuclear disarmament symbol are perhaps the best known.

Contents

Dove and olive branch

Rainbow

Shalom and Salaam

Peace flag

V-sign

The peace symbol

Antagonism

Other peace symbols

See also

External links

Dove and olive branch

In Judaism and Christianity, a white dove is generally a sign for peace. The Hebrew Bible describes a story in which a dove was released by Noah after the Great Flood in order to find land. The dove came back carrying an olive branch in its beak, telling Noah that the Great Flood had receded and there was land once again for Man. (Genesis 8:11). This symbolized that God was ending his "war" with mankind.
The motif can also represent "hope for peace" and even a peace offering from one man to another, as in the phrase "extend an olive branch". Often, the dove is represented as still in flight to remind the viewer of its role as messenger.
In the New Testament, the dove is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit, as in (King James Version) "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him..."

Rainbow

The appearance of the rainbow (Genesis 9:12-17) at the end of the Flood story also represents peace. The rainbow represents God's promise to humankind that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood. It is also thought that the Rainbow is a continuing symbol of God's promise to His people that He will never abandon them.

Shalom and Salaam

Main articles: Shalom, Salaam


The Hebrew word "Shalom" (Hebrew: ), and the Arabic "Salaam" (Arabic: ) have been used as peace symbols. Shalom and Salaam literally mean "peace" and are cognates of each other, derived from the Semitic Triconsonantal of ''Ś-L-M'' (realized in Hebrew as Š-L-M and in Arabic as S-L-M). They have come to represent "Mideast peace." Wall plaques and signs are sold with both the words and are featured in such such as "Salaam (Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu)."

Peace flag

Main articles: Peace rainbow flag


In recent years, especially in connection with the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, there has been a surge in popularity of the Peace flag, a series of seven rainbow colors (red on bottom) with the word 'PACE' (''Peace'' in Italian, derived from the Latin word ''pax'') boldy printed across the middle. The more recent usage originated in Italy. In most of the world, however, the rainbow flag (red on top) is most often connected with gay pride. The usage of the rainbow can either be tracked back to pacific coexistence of different people, or to the rainbow that God showed Noah at the end of the worldwide flood as recorded in the Bible, as a token of the covenant that He made between Himself and mankind, that He would not again destroy the entire world with a flood (Genesis 9)[1]. The flag in its current shape appeared as early as September 24 1961, in an Italian peace march. It had previously featured a dove drawn by Pablo Picasso. [2]
The flag was flown from balconies in all Italian cities by citizens against the war. Its use spread to other countries too, and the Italian ''Pace'' was replaced with the corresponding translation in the local languages.
According to Amnesty International, producer Franco Belsito had produced only about 1,000 flags for 18 years, and suddenly had to cope with a demand in the range of millions. [3]

V-sign

Main articles: V-sign


The "V-sign", also called the "peace sign" and the "victory sign," is a hand gesture with the index and middle fingers open and all others closed, facing the viewer. Originally strictly a sign for victory, it developed into a peace sign during protests against the Vietnam War (and subsequent anti-war protests) and by the counterculture as a sign of peace. Because the hippies of the day often flashed this sign (palm out) while vocalizing "Peace", it became popularly known through association as the peace sign. Originally, however, its symbolic meaning was ''love''; signing "love" and saying "peace" was a hippie anthem and mutual greeting.
John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono later made "Peace and love" an ongoing theme in their relationship and public personae, even conducting a public "sleep-in" (a parallel construction to a favorite hippie theme event during the 60s and early 70s, the "love-in") in Toronto, Canada, where they refused to leave their hotel bed.

The peace symbol

This forked symbol was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain, and originally, its use was confined to supporters of that organization. It was later generalised to become an icon of the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time. It was designed and completed February 21 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a commercial designer and artist in Britain. He had been commissioned by the CND to design a symbol for use at an Easter march to Canterbury Cathedral in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England.
The symbol itself is a combination of the semaphoric signals for the letters "N" and "D," standing for 'N'uclear 'D'isarmament. In semaphore the letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down "V," and the letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. These two signals imposed over each other form the shape of the peace symbol. In the original design the lines widened at the edge of the circle. The CND logo

A conscientious objector who had worked on a farm in Norfolk during the Second World War, Holtom later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in greater depth: "I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it."

A U.S. Army PoW discusses his peace symbol necklace with his North Vietnamese Army captors during the Vietnam War

The peace symbol flag first became known in the United States in 1958 when Albert Bigelow, a pacifist protester, sailed his small boat outfitted with the CND banner into the vicinity of a nuclear test. The peace symbol button was imported into the United States in 1960 by Philip Altbach, a freshman at the University of Chicago, who traveled to England to meet with British peace groups as a delegate from the Student Peace Union (SPU). Altbach purchased a bag of the "chickentrack" buttons while he was in England, and brought them back to Chicago, where he convinced SPU to reprint the button and adopt it as its symbol. Over the next four years, SPU reproduced and sold thousands of the buttons on college campuses.
In Unicode, the peace symbol is U+262E: ☮, and can thus be generated in HTML by typing ☮ or ☮. However, many browsers will not have a font that can display it.

Antagonism

The fact that the symbol resembles a bird foot in a circle gave rise to spurious alternative interpretations, ranging from plain mockery of "crow's foot" or "The footprint of the American Chicken" (suggesting that peace activists were cowards) to a number of occult meanings, such as an upside down crucifix with the arms broken downward, suggesting the way that St. Peter was martyred. Others have claimed that the symbol resembles a medieval sign known as "Nero's Cross" that represents Satanism. Alternatively, some have suggested that the symbol is an inverted Elhaz rune, which would reverse the rune's meaning, according to the critics, from 'life' to 'death' (although the Elhaz rune is thought to mean ''elk''^[1]). As well, a commonly repeated conjecture during the 1960s was that it was an antichrist symbol: a representation Jesus on the cross upside-down. Gerald Holtom's explanation of the genesis of the symbol and his first drawings of it, however, do not support those interpretations.:) ^[2][3][4][5]

Other peace symbols

Peace dove graffiti in Madrid. The Spanish "paz" translates to "peace".

Some unique items have come to symbolize peace. For example, the Japanese Peace Bell was a gift from the UN Association of Japan to the United Nations, presented to them in 1954. The bell remains at UN headquarters and is struck yearly, in remembrance for peace.
The Pax Cultura symbol, created by Nicholas Roerich has also been used as a peace symbol.

See also

★ Peace pipe

★ Palm frond

External links

★ A tribute to the Peace Symbol and the Peace Sign - PeaceSymbol.org

★ Peace symbols Part I - peace signs and images (author: Arash Vahdati)

★ Peace symbols Part II - peace signs and images (author: Karan Reshad)

★ What is the origin of the peace symbol? (from The Straight Dope)

★ International Human Peace Sign

★ Live peace symbols - in 30 country, 60 location
=References=
1. The Rune Primer, , Sweyn, Plowright, LuLu, , ISBN 1847282466
2. The Origin of the Peace Symbol
3. Christian Resource Centre: Peace Sign
4. Subdivision bans peace sign Christmas wreath
5. Pro-Peace Symbol Forces Win Battle in Colorado Town