Volunteer's Blog

World Peace Day – An Idea Why Youth Around The World Should Promote Peace

Do you know what day September 21 is? Yes, it’s true that September 21 is World Peace Day. Has anyone heard of today’s celebrations? So, World Peace Day was set by the United Nations through Resolution number 55/282 of 1991. World Peace Day was celebrated for the first time in 1982 and since then, nations around the world have also celebrated this world peace day.

At the United Nations headquarters, the world peace day is celebrated by ringing a large bell as a sign to open the celebration of the world peace day. According to the UN official website, this peace Bell was proposed to be built as a sign of hope for peace by Mr. Chiyoji Nakagawa, a former counselor of the United Nations Association of Japan during the General Assembly’s 6th session in Paris in 1951.

In 1991 the celebration of the World Peace Day voiced the story of a little girl and the story of the paper crane from Japan. This little girl is a victim of the atomic bomb radiation in Hiroshima which made her suffer from Leukemia. This little girl’s name is Sadako Sasaki. This girl made 1,000 cranes out of paper with her roommate when Sadako was hospitalized. The bird is the hope and dream of Sadako and her friends for true world peace. Then in 1955 Sasado died at the age of 12 in the hospital, to commemorate the story of Sadako Sasaki, she was made a statue in Seattle Peace Park.

In addition to the interesting story above, Indonesia also has an extraordinary symbol of a peaceful world. Namely the World Peace Gong which was created and inaugurated in 2002 by the Indonesian former President Megawati Soekarnoputri and the former Vice President, Hamzah Haz in Bali. This world peace gong was brought to various parts of Indonesia to celebrate important events related to peace. 

In addition to the Peace Gong, Indonesia also has another symbol as a sign of peace, namely a place to gather and discuss to resolve a problem that was created in Bukit Tondo. Besides Bali, Poso also built a Peace Gong and it was inaugurated on March 11, 2013 by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, MA, as a symbol of not repeating the violent conflict that had occurred in Poso, was given the name Gong Peace Nosarara Nosabatutu in the Kaili language which means brothers and unites.

As a young person, there are many ways that can be done to spread awareness about a peaceful world. And this has usually been applied from a small scale such as family, mothers are usually the ones who often remind us not to discriminate whether friends are black or white, straight or curly hair and many more. Mother also often reminds us not to do violence to other friends. For that, start now and teach children to keep the peace, which can start from the family environment, friendship, at school and in the wider community later.

Before teaching this to children, of course, you should start with yourself, there are many activities out there that can be done to create peace. Like Indonesia, there are many children, families who are less fortunate and have not yet received their rights to the fullest can be helped such as being able to hold social services, to less accessible places where people still need a lot of help. Visiting places of worship of other religions to know more about cultural diversity and appreciate how other people pray. And as citizens of Indonesia, we are obliged to observe a moment of silence in memory of the heroes who have fought desperately to fight for Indonesia’s independence, because without him we cannot do anything as freely as now. We must remember the services of the heroes for all time to respect and increase our sense of patriotism as the Indonesian nation.

And for all the war out there, can we just please, give peace a chance!

Written by: Ni Wayan Kariasih