Jerry Hirata of the Kauai Soto Zen Temple said as long as people make ozuru, or paper cranes, he’ll be participating in International Peace Day.
“This box of paper cranes is from Jim Jung who folds paper cranes at every chance he gets, usually while watching TV,” Hirata said. “There’s this lady who brought in about 2,000 cranes that she made. And, the fourth-graders of Eleele School have always contributed by folding more than 1,000 paper cranes each year. People like to make paper cranes, and as long as they make them, I guess there’ll be Peace Day.”
The International Day of Peace is marked on Sept. 21, which falls on Sunday this year.
“The Storybook Theatre with Mark Jeffers, and the Soto Zen Temple are sponsoring the 13th annual Peace Celebration in Hanapepe town on Sunday,” Hirata said. “For the past two years, the Interfaith Roundtable of Kauai, or IROK, has been an active sponsor of the event.”
The main Peace Day activities will center around Hanapepe, the birthplace of Sparky Matsunaga who went on to establish, through congressional legislation, the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C.
There will be other events to celebrate Peace Day on Kauai, including a concert by Red Grammer, a children and family entertainer, at the Kukui Grove Center on Saturday, starting at 11:30 a.m. There also will be a participatory international folk dance on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m.
And on Monday, everyone is invited to celebrate 2025 Peace Day in Hawaii through “Ring Your Bell for Peace Day” starting at 8:30 a.m. Sponsored by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii, the event is scheduled for Monday, the day after Peace Day, so schools and other groups can join the event.
At 9 a.m. on Monday, there will be a minute of silence followed by bells being rung by representatives at all the respective temples, churches, schools, community organizations, individuals in their homes or offices. Officials said they are planning to capture the program and participants on a Zoom screen simultaneously. Register online through bit.ly/PeaceDay2025.
“We start the event on Sunday at 3 p.m., with a ‘Walk for Peace’ from the Spark Matsunaga International Peace Garden at the Storybook Theatre, to the Soto Zen Temple where the World Peace Kannon Statue connects two monuments of Peace in Hanapepe Town,” Hirata said. “Walkers will be carrying the flags of nations that are embroiled in conflicts, such as Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and others. Or, carrying a photo of someone who has made a difference, like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dalai Lama, Spark Matsunaga and more.”
Hirata said the Peace Program will feature Kauai Museum Executive Director Chucky Boy Chock who will tell the story of Kauai’s legacy of peace, Kukona and Manokalanipo, the seventh and eighth ali‘i aimoku of Kauai in the 1400s, to the reign of King Kaumualii in the 1800s — nearly 400 years of peace.
“From the 3 to 4 o’clock hour for those who are not able, or choose not to go to Storybook Theatre and make the annual Walk for Peace, there will be activities inside the social hall for people of all ages,” said Analeah Atkinson, the IROK president. “There will be choices of mandala coloring pages with lots of colors to work with. Mandalas, when looked at for a while, can lead one to peace.”
Atkinson said there will be a peace table with a large collection of prints of international peace makers and their inspiring stories at which people can take a seat to read and return.
“In the IROK tradition, we will be making ‘wound kits’ that are distributed to the houseless, and also to the Department of Transportation,” Atkinson said. “On Kauai, one cannot ride a public bus with an open wound. We supply wound kits for the kind drivers to distribute to people who can then clean and dress the wound, and cover it with a large 3- by 4-inch bandage.”
The International Day of Peace, or Peace Day, is observed around the world on Sept. 21. Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provide a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to peace above all differences, and to contribute to building a culture of peace, according to the International Day of Peace website.
Source: The Garden Island
Be First to Comment