Last night, Michael and Linda and many of our friends joined with hundreds and hundreds of others to build an enormous human peace sign in Budapest's grand Heroes' Square. People began gathering long before nightfall -- when we arrived at 5:30pm, the peace sign had already begun to take a clear shape. We walked all around the outside of the circle, marvelling at the sheer numbers of people who had come to join in the event. We found our section and met up with several friends already there. (Our friend JD was our "section" leader, responsible for filling one segment of the peace sign with eager volunteers.) People continued to arrive as darkness approached, and soon it was time for the official program to begin. After some words from the organizers, the moment had arrived to light the torches. Though we had to fight a brisk wind at first, the flames grew stronger and the mood of the crowd more and more festive. Together we created an enormous and moving visual symbol of our wish for peace.
The idea for this demonstration came from a friend of ours, Tibor Varady (Jr.) (whom some of you will have met already at our salons) several years ago as a protest action against the war in Iraq. The first peace sign was held in Budapest in 2004. Since then it has grown every year in size and scope, and now it is an international demonstration opposing war and other forms of violence, with around 50 live peace sign demonstrations held this year around the world!!
We've got lots of links and media to share with you about this event.
To give you more information about the peace sign, Linda recently did a short (4 min) interview with Tibor himself -- You can play it here:
Here's a little 30-second video taken by Linda last night that captures the mood within the peace sign itself:
Last year, the organizers made a 10-minute mini-documentary about the peace sign that is available on YouTube -- in Hungarian with English subtitles. (Tibor is the first person who speaks in the video.)
Here's an aerial photo of the 2007 peace sign in Heroes' Square (follow the green arrow to "see" where we were standing.)
For more photos from the 2007 peace sign, check out this page on the Békejel website.
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