Peace symbol

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Opposition to...
Part of a series on Anti-War topics

War against Iran Iraq War War in Afghanistan War on Terrorism Landmines Vietnam War Nuclear armament World War II World War I Second Boer War American Civil War War of 1812 American Revolutionary War
Agents of opposition
Anti-war organizations Conscientious objectors Draft dodgers Peace movement Peace churches
Related ideologies
Anti-imperialism Antimilitarism Appeasement Nonviolence Pacifism
Media
Books • Films • Songs
Politics Portal · v • d • e

"Peace sign" redirects here. For the hand gesture, 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.

1 Generic peace symbols
2 Other peace symbols
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Generic peace symbols

[edit] The dove and the olive branch

A white dove with an olive branch

In Christianity and Judaism, a white dove is generally a sign for peace. This comes from the Old Testament: a dove was supposedly 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 appearance of the rainbow (Genesis 9:12-17) at the end of the Flood story also represents peace, whereby God directs His "bow" toward Himself, an ancient symbol of a cessation of hostilities. 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 Matthew 3:16 (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:"

[edit] The CND or Peace symbol

The CND or 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 Nuclear Disarmament. 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.

Semaphore 'N'

Semaphore 'D'

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." He also mentioned that he had intended its obvious resemblance to the anarchy symbol.^{[citation needed]}

However, it is more commonly believed that Holtom merely put a circle around a symbol that appeared throughout the English countryside near airbases. That symbol was of a strategic bomber which could be seen on road signs indicating where the air fields were located. This is a much less creative and emotional explanation for the symbol.

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.

[edit] 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]

[edit] The Peace Rainbow Flag

An English language peace 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 Latin and Italian) boldy printed across the middle. The more recent usage originated in Italy. In the United States of America, 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 flood, as a symbol of peace between God and mankind. 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. [1]

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. [2]

See also: Rainbow flag

[edit] Other peace symbols

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

The V-sign, with the fingers shown towards the viewer, is a hand gesture often used as a peace symbol, though it is also often used to represent victory.

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.