April 12th, 2022

Groovy!   These pictures take me back quite about four decades!  (Dang I'm old!)

The peace symbol, in whatever colour or design, was a big part of my teenaged years.  We wore it on our shirts, in our jewelry and on our barrettes.   You could see them inked on sneakers, embroidered on denim and painted on our faces and on buildings.  We flashed those peace signs with our fingers in the air with the same ease that other might wave hello or goodbye.  And we meant it too.  

I think that as symbols go, the peace symbol is an esthetically pleasing one and I love what it stands for.  Peace.  What a great idea, a terrific goal, and a lovely wish to bestow on others.

​But I never noticed, until just the other day that the hand sign for peace gas, the Vee points up:

but the other peace sign from my era  has the vee pointing down:

Do you see it?  Isn't that odd?  They are opposite one another.  I don't' know of any other symbols that mean the same thing but appear as the converse.  Wierd!  So of course I had to look it up.
Naturally!  Was that even a question?  

Soooo as it so happens, the hand sign for Peace actually began in World War II as a sign for Victory.  It's a V.  I get that.  During the Anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960's this sign  was appropriated by an entire generation to instead indicate Peace.  Kind of flipping it's meaning around.  It was a crazy time.

On the other hand, the bisected circle with the upsidedown V in it,  always stood for peace in a way. It was introduced by one Gerald Holtom in Britain as a symbol for those marching for Nuclear Disarmament.  It's created from the flag semaphores representing the letters N and D  (nuclear disarmament obviously).  Mr. Holtom also reportedly said he was inspired by artist Francisco Goya's piece: "The third of May 1808" wherein a peasant stands distraught, arms at his side slightly out from his body and pointing downward in front of a firing squad (suggesting the upside down Vee shape).  Yikes!

So I'm not wrong.  One peace sign vee's upward and the other downward. Very Very unusual.

There are other peace signs of course.  There is the traditional olive branch which dates way way back to something like 5th Century Greece.  And then of course the dove is also a sign of peace which I suppose is even older since it's based on the Bible story of Noah's Ark.  And speaking of the bible, some early Christians adopted the dove with an olive branch in it's beak as one of their signs.  That's kind of sweet don't you think?

Sometimes the olive branch and/or dove are seen  combined with a dagger or arrows as a peace and war kind of theme.  Of course, that one is nearly always in someway governmental. No surprise there.  Nor is the broken rifle as a sign of peace a shock.  Even if you didn't speak the same language, offering someone a broken rifle clearly indicates that you have no ill intent.  Or in other words,  you offer peace. Nice.

I suppose waving a white flag is sort of a sign of peace. Generally it means surrender or indicates a desire for, at the very least, a truce.  Which while it may not strictly mean Peace exactly, at the very least does not mean war.

There is also the lion and the lamb symbolism.  It's a very old peace symbol and in fact is represented on one of the oldest coins ever minted, from around 800 BC, in Greece.  It is another one taken from the bible, about predator and prey laying down together in peace.  It's a lovely story on paper but in real life, I doubt that the outcome would be as nice.  Still it is a legitimate symbol of peace.

There are other Peace symbols in other countries and cultures of course, such as the beautiful paper cranes from Japan and the white poppies from the UK.  I think it's a beautiful thing that every country has a symbol for Peace, not just the words but a representational symbol.  That says to me that most of us share that desire.  We have dozens of different ways to express peace.

​Now if we could only achieve it.