{{Short description|Symbols to promote peace}}{{Redirect|Peace sign|other uses|Peace Sign (disambiguation)}}{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}File:Peace symbol (bold).svg|thumb|The symbol designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement in 1958 is now widely known as the "peace sign".]]A number of peace symbols have been used many ways in various cultures and contexts. The dove and olive branch was used symbolically by early Christians and then eventually became a secular peace symbol, popularized by a Dove lithograph by Pablo Picasso after World War II. In the 1950s the "peace sign", as it is known today (also known as "peace and love"), was designed by Gerald Holtom as the logo for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND),WEB,weblink The CND symbol, Cnduk.org, 22 January 2014, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110724002411weblink">weblink 24 July 2011, a group at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK, and adopted by anti-war and counterculture activists in the US and elsewhere. The symbol is a (wikt:superposition|superposition) of the semaphore signals for the letters "N" and "D", taken to stand for "nuclear disarmament", while simultaneously acting as a reference to Goya's The Third of May 1808 (1814) (aka "Peasant Before the Firing Squad").WEB,weblink History of the Symbol, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, en-GB, 8 May 2019, 26 July 2018,weblink live, The V hand signal and the peace flag also became international peace symbols.

Olive branch

Classical antiquity

File:OliveBritAmerica1775.jpg|200px|thumb|An engraving from The London Magazine The London MagazineThe use of the olive branch as a symbol of peace in Western civilization dates at least to 5th century BC Greece. The olive branch, which the Greeks believed represented plenty and drove away evil spirits,Rupert Graves, The Greek Myths, Harmonsdsworth: Penguin Books, 1962, Section 53.7 was one of the attributes of Eirene,WEB,weblink Theoi Greek Mythology, Theoi.com, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120222004646weblink">weblink 22 February 2012, the Greek goddess of peace. Eirene (whom the Romans called Pax), appeared on Roman Imperial coinsWEB,weblink Coins of Roman Egypt, Coins of Roman Egypt, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120313060140weblink">weblink 13 March 2012, with an olive branch.The Roman poet Virgil (70â€“10 BC) associated "the plump olive"Virgil, Georgics, 2, pp.425ff (trans. Fairclough) with Pax and he used the olive branch as a symbol of peace in his Aeneid:WEB,weblink Great Seal, Great Seal, 21 February 2012, High on the stern Aeneas his stand,And held a branch of olive in his hand,While thus he spoke: "The Phrygians' arms you see,Expelled from Troy, provoked in ItalyBy Latian foes, with war unjustly made;At first affianced, and at last betrayed.This message bear: The Trojans and their chiefBring holy peace, and beg the king's relief."The Romans believed there was an intimate relationship between war and peace. Mars, the god of war, had another aspect, Mars Pacifer, Mars the bringer of Peace, who is shown on coins of the later Roman Empire bearing an olive branch.Ragnar Hedlund, "Coinage and authority in the Roman empire, c. AD 260â€“295", Studia Numismatica Upsaliensia, 5, University of Uppsala, 2008 Appian describes the use of the olive-branch as a gesture of peace by the enemies of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus in the Numantine WarWEB, Appian of Alexandria,weblink Appian's History of Rome: The Spanish Wars (Â§Â§91â€“95), Livius.org, 21 February 2012, live,weblink 13 January 2012, and by Hasdrubal of Carthage.Nathaniel Hooke, The Roman history: From the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the Commonwealth, London: J. Rivington, 1823 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220082109weblink |date=20 February 2018 }}
Later representations
(File:William and Mary.jpg|thumb|right|James Thornhill, Peace and Liberty Triumphing Over Tyranny)Poets of the 17th century associated the olive branch with peace.BOOK,weblink A. Anselment, Loyalist resolve: patient fortitude in the English Civil War, Associated University Presses, 1988, 9780874133387, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130619050555weblink">weblink 19 June 2013, Anselment, Raymond A., 1988, A Charles I gold coin of 1644 shows the monarch with sword and olive branch.WEB,weblink Coins of Quality: The art of Coins, Petitioncrown.com, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120215110456weblink">weblink 15 February 2012, Throughout the 18th century, English coins show Britannia with a spear and olive branch.The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, contains an allegorical painting by James Thornhill, Peace and Liberty Triumphing Over Tyranny (1708â€“1716), depicting King William III and Queen Mary (who had enacted the English Bill of Rights) enthroned in heaven with the Virtues behind them. Peace, with her doves and lambs, hands an olive branch to William, who in turn hands the cap of liberty to Europe, where absolute monarchy prevails. Below William is the defeated French king, Louis XIV.Old Naval College {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626185300weblink |date=26 June 2007 }}In January 1775, the frontispiece of the London Magazine published an engraving of Peace descending on a cloud from the Temple of Commerce, bringing an olive branch to America and Britannia. In July that year, the American Continental Congress adopted the "Olive Branch Petition" in the hope of avoiding a full-blown war with Great Britain.On the Great Seal of the United States (1782), the olive branch denotes peace, as explained by Charles Thomson, Secretary to Congress: "The Olive branch and arrows denote the power of peace & war which is exclusively vested in Congress."
Dove and olive branch
Christianity
(File:PEACE BAPTISM.png|thumb|Diagram showing the relationship between the Flood, baptism, water, peace and the dove in early Christian thinking.|right)File:Noah catacombe.jpg|right|thumb|Wall painting from the early Christian Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter in Rome, showing Noah, in the orante attitude of prayer, the dove and an olive branch]]File:The Descent of the Holy Spirit -Tiffany.jpeg|thumb|right|200px|The descent of Holy Spirit in the Christian Trinity depicted as a dove of peace in a church memorial stained glass stained glassThe use of a dove as a symbol of peace originated with early Christians, who portrayed baptism accompanied by a dove, often on their sepulchres.James Elmes, A General and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Fine Arts, London {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410063930weblink |date=10 April 2023 }}: Thomas Tegg, 1826 WEB,weblink A General and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Fine Arts: Containing Explanations of the Principal Terms Used in the Arts of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, and Engraving, in All Their Various Branches; Historical Sketches of the Rise and Progress of Their Different Schools; Descriptive Accounts of the Best Books and Treatises on the Fine Arts; and Every Useful Topic Connected Therewith, 30 September 2010, 10 April 2023,weblink bot: unknown, Elmes, James, 1826, WEB,weblink Catholic Encyclopedia, Roman Catacombs: Paintings, Newadvent.org, 1 November 1908, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120111063744weblink">weblink 11 January 2012, The New Testament compared the dove to the Spirit of God that descended on Jesus during his baptism.{{bibleverse|Mt|3:16}}WEB,weblink 'Catholic Encyclopedia' Dove: As an artistic symbol, Newadvent.org, 1 May 1909, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120206071146weblink">weblink 6 February 2012, Christians saw similarities between baptism and Noah's Flood. The First Epistle of Peter (composed around the end of the first century ADThe Early Christian World, Volume 1, p. 148, Philip Esler) said that the Flood, which brought salvation through water, prefigured baptism.{{bibleverse|1Pt|3:20â€“21}} Tertullian ({{Circa|160|220}}) compared the dove, who "announced to the world the assuagement of divine wrath, when she had been sent out of the ark and returned with the olive branch, to the Holy Spirit who descends in baptism in the form of a dove that brings the peace of God, sent out from the heavens".BOOK,weblink Worshipping with the Church Fathers, InerVarsity Press, 2009, 32, 2010, 9780830838660, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130616122125weblink">weblink 16 June 2013, Hall, Christopher A., At first the dove represented the subjective personal experience of peace, the peace of the soul, and in the earliest Christian art it accompanies representations of baptism. By the end of the second century (for example in the writing of Tertullian)" ... praeco columba terris adnuntiavit dimissa ex arca et cum olea reversa â€“ quod signum etiam ad nationes pacis praetenditur eadem dispositione spiritalis effectus terrae ... " Tertullian, On Baptism, Chapter 8 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224043148weblink |date=24 December 2016 }} it also represented social and political peace, "peace unto the nations", and from the third century it began to appear in depictions of conflict, such as Noah and the Ark, Daniel and the lions, the three young men in the furnace, and Susannah and the Elders.Graydon D. Snyder, Ante Pacem: archaeological evidence of church life before Constantine, Macon: Mercer University Press, 2003WEB,weblink John Dominic Crossan, Inventory of Biblical Scenes on Pre-Constantinian Christian Art, Faculty.maryvillecollege.edu., 21 February 2012, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120325222538weblink">weblink 25 March 2012, The dove appears in Christian inscriptions in the Roman catacombs, sometimes accompanied by the words in pace (Latin for "in peace"). For example, in the Catacomb of Callixtus, a dove and branch are drawn next to a Latin inscription NICELLA VIRCO DEI OVE VI XIT ANNOS P M XXXV DE POSITA XV KAL MAIAS BENE MERENTI IN PACE, meaning "Nicella, God's virgin, who lived for more or less 35 years. She was placed [here] 15 days before the Kalends of May [17 April]. For the well deserving one in peace."WEB,weblink Bene Merenti â€“ Inscriptions from the Roman Catacombs, Usask.ca, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120110034540weblink">weblink 10 January 2012, In another example, a shallow relief sculpture shows a dove with a branch flying to a figure marked in Greek as Î•Î™Î¡Î—ÎÎ— (Eirene, or Peace).WEB,weblink David Salmoni, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120314122557weblink">weblink 14 March 2012, The symbol has also been found in the Christian catacombs of Sousse, Tunisia (ancient Carthage), which date from the end of the first century AD.EB1911, Hadrumetum, 12, Babelon, Ernest Charles FranÃ§ois, 802–803; see page 803, In these catacombs we find numerous sarcophagi and inscriptions painted or engraved of the Roman and Byzantine periods, WEB,weblink Where the stones cry out, The Moslem World, Vol. XII, No.4, October 1922, 21 February 2012, WEB,weblink The Sousse Catacombs, Patrimoinedetunisie.com.tn, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120118211021weblink">weblink 18 January 2012, The Christian symbolism of the olive branch, invariably carried by the dove, derives from Greek usage and the story of Noah in the Hebrew Bible.Graydon F. Snyder, "The Interaction of Jews with Non-Jews in Rome", in Karl P. Donfreid and Peter Richardson, Judaism and Christianity in Early Rome, Grand Rapids: Wm B. Ferdman, 1998 The story of Noah ends with a dove bringing a freshly plucked olive leaf (Hebrew: ×¢×œ×” ×–×™×ª alay zayit),{{bibleverse|Gen|8:11}} a sign of life after the Flood and of God's bringing Noah, his family and the animals to land. Rabbinic literature interpreted the olive leaf as "the young shoots of the Land of Israel"weblink Genesis Rabbah 33:6' or the dove's preference for bitter food in God's service, rather than sweet food in the service of men.WEB,weblink Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 108b, Halakhah.com, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120203130401weblink">weblink 3 February 2012, WEB,weblink Eruvin 18b, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120202054240weblink">weblink 2 February 2012, WEB,weblink Rashi, Tachash.org, 21 February 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180819171131weblink">weblink 19 August 2018, dead, and neither represented peace in Jewish thought, but the dove and olive branch acquired that meaning in Christianity.WEB, Peace Sign â€“ Meaning And A Brief History In 2021,weblink 20 September 2021, en-US, 20 September 2021,weblink live, Before the Peace of Constantine (313 AD), in which Rome ceased its persecution of Christians following Constantine's conversion, Noah was normally shown in an attitude of prayer, a dove flying toward him or alighting on his outstretched hand. According to Graydon Snyder, "The Noah story afforded the early Christian community an opportunity to express piety and peace in a vessel that withstood the threatening environment" of Roman persecution. According to Ludwig Budde and Pierre Prigent, the dove referred to the descending of the Holy Spirit rather than the peace associated with Noah. After the Peace of Constantine, when persecution ceased, Noah appeared less frequently in Christian art.In the fourth century, St. Jerome's Latin Bible translated the Hebrew "alay zayit" in the Noah story as "ramum olivae", ("olive branch"), possibly reflecting the Christian equivalence between the peace brought by baptism and peace brought by the ending of the Flood. By the fifth century, St Augustine confirmed the Christian adoption of the olive branch as a symbol of peace, writing that, "perpetual peace is indicated by the olive branch (Latin: oleae ramusculo) that the dove brought with it when it returned to the ark."BOOK,weblink Augustine of Hippo, 'On Christian Doctrine', 1883, 9781593774943, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130619194156weblink">weblink 19 June 2013, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, such as the Holkham Bible, showed the dove returning to Noah with a branch.WEB,weblink British Library, The Holkham Bible, Bl.uk, 30 November 2003, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120207140102weblink">weblink 7 February 2012, Wycliffe's Bible, which translated the Vulgate into English in the 14th century, uses "a braunche of olyue tre with greene leeuys" ("a branch of olive tree with green leaves") in Gen. 8:11.WEB,weblink Wycliffe Bible, Gen 8:11, Studylight.org, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120202022858weblink">weblink 2 February 2012, In the Middle Ages, some Jewish manuscripts, which were often illustrated by Christians,British Library, "Golden Haggadah" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806094915weblink |date=6 August 2016 }} also showed Noah's dove with an olive branch, for example, the Golden Haggadah (about 1420).Narkiss, Bezalel, The Golden Haggadah, London: The British Library, 1997, p. 22British Library, Online Gallery, Sacred Texts. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814022955weblink |date=14 August 2011 }} The Golden Haggadah, p.3, lower left hand panel.English Bibles from the 17th-century King James Bible onwards, which translated the story of Noah direct from Hebrew, render the Hebrew 'aleh zayit as "olive leaf" rather than "olive branch", but by this time the association of the dove with an olive branch as a symbol of peace in the story of Noah was firmly established.{{cn|date=February 2021}}
Secular representations
File:Saint-Pierre-d'Aurillac Colombe.JPG|thumb|Adaption of Picasso's La Colombe]]

Late 15th century In the late 15th century, a dove with an olive branch was used on the seal of Dieci di Balia, the Florentine committee known as The Ten of Liberty and Peace,Mattingly, Gareth, "Michiavelli", in Plumb, J.H., The Horizon Book of the Renaissance, London: Collins, 1961 whose secretary was Machiavelli; it bore the motto, "Pax et Defencio Libertatis" (Peace and the Defence of Liberty).WEB,weblink "Commission and instruction to Niccolo Machiavelli, Sent to Sienna by the Ten of Liberty and Peace", in Niccolo Machiavelli, The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, vol. 3 (Diplomatic Missions 1498â€“1505), Oll.libertyfund.org, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121024191328weblink">weblink 24 October 2012,
Late 18th century In 18th century America, a Â£2 note of North Carolina (1771) depicted the dove and olive with a motto meaning: "Peace restored". Georgia's $40 note of 1778 portrayed the dove and olive and a hand holding a dagger, with a motto meaning "Either war or peace, prepared for both."
Early 19th century The Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace, also known as The London Peace Society, formed on a Quaker initiative in 1816, used the symbol of a dove and olive branch.WEB,weblink Santi, Rainer, 100 years of peace making: A history of the International Peace Bureau and other international peace movement organisations and networks, Pax fÃ¶rlag, International Peace Bureau, January 1991, Santibox.ch, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120421104457weblink">weblink 21 April 2012,
Early 20th century A German war loan poster of 1917 showed the head of an eagle over a dove of peace in flight, with the text, "Subscribe to the War Loan".{{cn|date=February 2021}}
Mid 20th century Picasso's lithograph, La Colombe (The Dove), a traditional, realistic picture of a pigeon, without an olive branch, was chosen as the emblem for the World Peace Council in Paris in April 1949.WEB,weblink Museum of Modern Art, Moma.org, 9 January 1949, 21 February 2012, 12 October 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20111012081042weblink">weblink live, The dove became a symbol for the peace movement and the ideals of the Communist Party and was used in Communist demonstrations of the period. At the 1950 World Peace Council in Sheffield, Picasso said that his father had taught him to paint doves, concluding, "I stand for life against death; I stand for peace against war."WEB,weblink Tate Gallery, Tate.org.uk, 21 February 2012, 13 January 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120113055410weblink">weblink live, WEB,weblink BBC Modern Masters, BBC, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120414135231weblink">weblink 14 April 2012, At the 1952 World Peace Council in Berlin, Picasso's Dove was depicted in a banner above the stage. The dove symbol was used extensively in the post-war peace movement.{{citation needed|date=October 2010}} Anti-communists had their own take on the peace dove: the group distributed posters titled La colombe qui fait BOUM (the dove that goes BOOM), showing the peace dove metamorphosing into a Soviet tank.WEB,weblink Princeton University Library, Infoshare1.princeton.edu, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120318085413weblink">weblink 18 March 2012,

Broken rifle
File:Broken rifle.svg|thumb|175px|The broken rifle symbol of War Resisters' International War Resisters' InternationalThe broken rifle symbol is used by War Resisters' International (WRI) and its affiliates but predates the foundation of WRI in 1921. The first known example of the symbol is in the masthead of the January 1909 issue of De Wapens Neder (Down with Weapons), the monthly paper of the International Antimilitarist Union in the Netherlands. In 1915 it appeared on the cover of a pamphlet, Under det brukne GevÃ¦r (Under the Broken Rifle), published by the Norwegian Social Democratic Youth Association. The (German) League for War Victims, founded in 1917, used the broken rifle on a 1919 banner.{{cn|date=February 2021}}In 1921, Belgian workers marching through La LouvriÃ¨re on 16 October 1921, carried flags showing a soldier breaking his rifle. Ernst Friedrich, a German who had refused military service, founded the Anti-Kriegs Museum in Berlin, which featured a bas-relief broken rifle over the door. The Museum distributed broken-rifle badges, girls' and women's brooches, boys' belt buckles, and men's tie pins.Bill Hetheringon, Symbols of Peace, Housmans Peace Diary 2007,' London: Housmans, 2006
White poppy
In 1933, during a period in which there was widespread fear of war in Europe, the Women's Co-operative Guild began the practice of distributing white poppiesWEB, Hull Women's Archives,weblink Women of Conviction, Margaret Llewelyn Davies (1861â€“1943) and Emmy Freundlich (1878â€“1948), live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20081012001126weblink">weblink 12 October 2008, dmy-all, as an alternative to the red poppies distributed by the Royal British Legion in commemoration of servicemen who died in the First World War. In 1934 the newly formed Peace Pledge Union (PPU), which was the largest British peace organization in the inter-war years, joined in distributing white poppies and laying white poppy wreaths "as a pledge to peace that war must not happen again". In 1980, the PPU revived the symbol as a way of remembering the victims of war without glorifying militarism.{{cn|date=February 2021}}
Roerich's peace banner
File:Roerich_symbol (bold, red).svg|thumb|right|The Pax Cultura emblem of the Roerich Pact Roerich Pact Nicholas Roerich (1874â€“1947), a Russian artist, cultural activist, and philosopher, founded a movement to protect cultural artifacts. Its symbol was a maroon-on-white emblem consisting of three solid circles in a surrounding circle. It has also been used as a peace banner. In 1935 a pact initiated by Roerich was signed by the United States and Latin American nations, agreeing that "historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions" should be protected both in times of peace and war.According to the Roerich Museum,The Banner of Peace symbol has ancient origins. Perhaps its earliest known example appears on Stone Age amulets: three dots, without the enclosing circle. Roerich came across numerous later examples in various parts of the world, and knew that it represented a deep and sophisticated understanding of the triune nature of existence. But for the purposes of the Banner and the Pact, Roerich described the circle as representing the totality of culture, with the three dots being Art, Science, and Religion, three of the most embracing of human cultural activities. He also described the circle as representing the eternity of time, encompassing the past, present, and future. The sacred origins of the symbol, as an illustration of the trinities fundamental to all religions, remain central to the meaning of the Pact and the Banner today."Pact and Banner Of Peace Through Culture" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316045013weblink |date=16 March 2013 }}, Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York
Peace symbol

factoids

1F54Anlink=Doves as symbols}}{{unicharVictory hand|nlink=V sign}}|different from= Mercedes-Benz logo}}The symbol now known internationally as the "peace symbol" or "peace sign", or alternatively as the nuclear disarmament symbol, or the CND symbol (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) originates as a symbol representing the threat of nuclear annihilation used in British anti-nuclear activism from 1958. It was widely adopted in the American anti-war movement in the 1960s and was re-interpreted as generically representing world peace. It was still used, however, in its original anti-nuclear context by activists opposing nuclear power, in the 1980s (although the Smiling Sun image ((file:Smiling Sun English Language.svg|20px)) ["Nuclear power? No thanks!]" predominated).
Origin
The symbol was designed by Gerald Holtom (1914â€“1985) for the British nuclear disarmament movement. Holtom, an artist and designer, presented it to the Direct Action Committee on 21 February 1958 where it was "immediately accepted" as a symbol for a march from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire on 4 April.NEWS, Jack, Ian, He gave his unforgettable work for nothing. Shouldn't the designer of the peace symbol be commemorated?,weblink 20 February 2018, The Guardian, 28 November 2015, 20 February 2018,weblink live, WEB,weblink The Peace Museum, Bradford, The Peace Museum's Collection, Nuclear Disarmament Symbol Drawings, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140201233916weblink">weblink 1 February 2014, "WEB,weblink First use of the peace symbol, 1958, 21 February 2012, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120219234704weblink">weblink 19 February 2012, NEWS, A Piece of Our Time, Time Magazine,weblink 2 April 2008, 27 March 2008, Richard, Lacayo, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080401202054weblink">weblink 1 April 2008, dmy-all, Holtom's design was adapted by Eric Austen (1922â€“1999) to ceramic lapel badges.NEWS, W. J. Mc Cormack,weblink Obituary of Eric Austen, The Independent, 17 July 1998, The Independent, UK, 17 July 1999, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120122060057weblink">weblink 22 January 2012, WEB, On February 21, 1958, the Peace Symbol Design Was Completed by Gerald Holtom, 21 February 2022, vintag.es, Vintage Everyday,weblink 20 March 2022, live,weblink 21 February 2022, The original design is in the Peace Museum in Bradford, England.{{Multiple image| total_width = 200| image1 = Semaphore November.svg| caption1 = N| image2 = Semaphore Delta.svg| caption2 = D| alt1 = Semaphore "N"| alt2 = Semaphore "D"| header = Flag semaphore "ND"}}The symbol is a super-imposition of the flag semaphore for the characters "N" and "D", taken to stand for "nuclear disarmament".WEB,weblink Where did the peace sign come from?, 30 September 2010, Breyer, Melissa, 21 September 2010, Shine, Yahoo!,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121107233803weblink">weblink 7 November 2012, live, This observation was made as early as 5 April 1958 in the Manchester Guardian."Early Defections in March", Manchester Guardian, 5 April 1958 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122000810weblink |date=22 November 2016 }} "By the time the marchers had left Chiswick they numbered less than two thousand. Above them bobbed the signs of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, a sort of formalised white butterfly which, it appeared, was the semaphore sign for "N.D." "WEB, The CND symbol, Hugh Brock Papers,weblink live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131003032600weblink">weblink 3 October 2013, dmy-all, In addition to this primary genesis, Holtom additionally cited as inspiration Francisco Goya's painting The Third of May 1808 (1814):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.WEB,weblink History of the Symbol, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, en-GB, 2019-05-08, 26 July 2018,weblink live, Although in the painting, the peasant shown has his arms stretched upwards, not downwards.Ken Kolsbun, a correspondent of Holtom's, says that the designer came to regret the symbolism of despair, as he felt that peace was something to be celebrated and wanted the symbol to be inverted.NEWS, Kathryn, Westcott, World's best-known protest symbol turns 50, 20 March 2008,weblink BBC News, 20 March 2008, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080321113603weblink">weblink 21 March 2008, dmy-all, Eric Austen is said to have "discovered that the 'gesture of despair' motif had long been associated with 'the death of man', and the circle with 'the unborn child'{{-"}}.The symbol became the badge of CND, and wearing it became a sign of support for the campaign urging British unilateral nuclear disarmament. An account of CND's early history described the image as "a visual adhesive to bind the [Aldermaston] March and later the whole Campaign together ... probably the most powerful, memorable and adaptable image ever designed for a secular cause".Christopher Driver, The Disarmers: A Study in Protest, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964.File:CND badge, 1960s.jpg|Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament badge (1960s)File:Vietnam....Specialist. 4 Richard Champion, squad leader, Company B, 4th Battalion, 21st Infantry, 11th Light Infantry... - NARA - 531467.jpg|A U.S. soldier in Vietnam wearing various amulets, including the "peace symbol" and the Buddhist swastika (1971 photograph).File:Hippie memorial peace sign.jpg|A "peace symbol" forming part of the "Hippie Memorial" (1992) in Arcola, Illinois, United States.
International reception
File:Hiroshima Day Activist 2014.JPG|thumb|upright|Nuclear disarmament activist in Wellington handing out peace cranes and holding a peace symbol commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiNot copyrighted, trademarked or restricted, the symbol spread beyond CND and was adopted by the wider disarmament and anti-war movements. It became widely known in the United States in 1958 when Albert Bigelow, a pacifist protester, sailed a small boat fitted with the CND banner into the vicinity of a nuclear test.BOOK, The Struggle Against the Bomb: Volume Two, Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 55,weblink Lawrence S Wittner, 1993, Stanford University Press, 9780804729185, 24 July 2009, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130616113039weblink">weblink 16 June 2013, dmy-all, Buttons with the symbol were imported into the United States in 1960 by Philip Altbach, a freshman at the University of Chicago. Altbach had traveled to England to meet with British peace groups as a delegate from the Student Peace Union (SPU) and, on his return, he persuaded the SPU to adopt the symbol.{{cn|date=February 2021}} Between 1960 and 1964, they sold thousands of the buttons on college campuses. By 1968, the symbol had been adopted as a generic peace sign,BOOK, Peace: The Biography of a Symbol, Ken Kolsbun with Mike Sweeney, National Geographic Society, National Geographic Books, 1 April 2008, 978-1-4262-0294-0,weblink 28 August 2008, dmy-all, registration, associated especially with the hippie movement and opposition to the Vietnam War.George Stanford, The Myth of the Witch's Foot: How the John Birch Society Created a Hoax About the Peace Sign, Monday, 3 December 2012 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017223108weblink |date=17 October 2015 }}In 1970, two US private companies tried to register the peace symbol as a trade mark: the Intercontinental Shoe Corporation of New York and Luv, Inc. of Miami. Commissioner of Patents William E. Schuyler Jr, said that the symbol "could not properly function as a trade mark subject to registration by the Patent Office".WEB,weblink The Morning Record, Meriden, Conn, 22 Oct 1970, p.29, 18 March 2016, 11 April 2016,weblink live, In 1973, the South African government tried to ban its use by opponents of apartheid."World's best-known protest symbol turns 50" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320130805weblink |date=20 March 2012 }}. BBC News Magazine, 20 March 2008
Interpretations
Gerald Holtom had originally considered using a Christian cross symbol within a circle, but he was dissuaded by several priests who expressed reservations towards using the cross on a protest march.WEB,weblink The CND logo, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080325173521weblink">weblink 25 March 2008, live, 3 April 2008, Holtom's symbol was nevertheless compared to the Christian cross symbol, as well as to the death rune (the inverted á›˜ rune associated with death in early 20th century esotericism)."In the past, a very similar inverted cross was known to represent Peter hanging upside down on the cross. When that symbol was placed on the door, it was a sign to persecuted Christians that there would be church services in that home." Pasadena Star-News 8 May 1968, cited after George Stanford, The Myth of the Witch's Foot: How the John Birch Society Created a Hoax About the Peace Sign {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017223108weblink |date=17 October 2015 }}, Monday, 3 December 2012.In 1968, the anti-Communist evangelist Billy James Hargis described the symbol as a "broken cross", which he claimed represented the antichrist. Hargis' interpretation was taken up by a member of the John Birch Society, Marjorie Jensen, who wrote a pamphlet claiming the symbol was equivalent to "a symbol of the devil, with the cross reversed and broken" supposedly known as "the crow's foot or witch's foot".NEWS, Walling, Marie H., January 13, 1969, Popular pendant's meaning: symbol of peace or evil?,weblink March 21, 2024, Arizona Republic, 41, Newspapers.com, In June 1970, American Opinion, the journal of the John Birch Society, published an article which compared the symbol to a supposed "broken cross" claimed to have been "carried by the Moors when they invaded Spain in the 8th century". The newsletter of the National Republican Congressional Committee of 28 September 1970 on its question page made the comparison to a design of a "death rune" in a wreath published by the German Nazi party as representing (heroic) death, in 1942. National Republican Congressional Committee (28 September 1970), cited after Stanford (2012). Caption Wochenspruch der NSDAP. / Herausgeber / Folge 12, 15. â€“ 21. Marz weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160116203852weblink">Wochenspruch Folge 12, 15â€“21 MÃ¤rz, Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP (1942). Time magazine in its 2 November 1970 issue made note of these comparisons, pointing out that any such resemblance was "probably coincidental"."What's in a Symbol?" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101030171609weblink |date=30 October 2010 }}, Time, 2 November 1970.
Rainbow flag
File:Bandiera pace.jpg|thumb|The peace flag peace flagThe international peace flag in the colours of the rainbow was first used in Italy on a 1961 peace march from Perugia to Assisi organized by the pacifist and social philosopher Aldo Capitini (1899â€“1968). Inspired by the peace flags used on British peace marches, Capitini got some women of Perugia hurriedly to sew together coloured strips of material.The Story of the Peace Flag {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303194527weblink |date=3 March 2016 }} (Italian) The march has been repeated many times since 1961, including in 2010.WEB,weblink "The Perugia-Assisi Peace March", Paolo Andruciolli, rassegna.it, 14 May 2010 (Italian), it, Rassegna.it, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120315012141weblink">weblink 15 March 2012, The original flag was kept by Capitini's collaborator, Lanfranco Mencaroni, at Collevalenza, near Todi. In 2011, plans were announced to transfer it to the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia.Perugia Today {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626115420weblink |date=26 June 2015 }} (In Italian)The flag commonly has seven rainbow-colored stripes with the word PACE (Italian for "peace") in the center. It has been explained as follows:

In the account of the Great Flood, God set the rainbow to a seal the alliance with man and nature, promising that there will never be another Flood. The rainbow thus became a symbol of Peace across the earth and the sky, and, by extension, among all men.The flag usually has the colours violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red from top to bottom, but some have the violet stripe below the blue one (as in the picture at the right) or a white one at the top.WEB,weblink Pace Oggi (Peace Today) (Italian), Scuoleingioco.it, 21 February 2012, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120119053206weblink">weblink 19 January 2012, A picture of Capitini's first peace flag, carried by Anna Capitini and Silvana Mencaroni, shows the colours red, orange, white, green, violet, indigo, and lavender.In 2002, renewed display of the flag was widespread with the Pace da tutti i balconi ("Peace from every balcony") campaign, a protest against the impending war in Iraq planned by the United States and its allies. In 2003, the Italian newspaper reported leading advertising executives saying that the peace flag had become more popular than the Italian national flag.WEB, RCS Corriere della Sera,weblink "Bandiera della pace piÃ¹ popolare del tricolore", Corriere della Sera, 20 February 2003 (Italian), Corriere della Sera, it, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120113080014weblink">weblink 13 January 2012, In November 2009, a huge peace flag, 21m wide by 40m long, was made in Lecce, Salento, by young members of "GPACE â€“ Youth for Peace â€“ Give Peace a Chance Everywhere".{{Dead link|date=May 2015}}WEB,weblink Youth for Peace, GPACE, 21 February 2012, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120301061825weblink">weblink 1 March 2012,
Predator and prey lie down together
File:Kroisos BMC 31.jpg|right|thumb|Croeseid coin of 550 BC}}, depicting the Lion and Bull â€“ partly symbolizing alliance between Lydia and Greece, respectively.The imagery of a predator and prey lying down together in peace is depicted in the Bible:One of the first coins to be minted was the croeseid. It depicted the Lydian Lion and Hellenic Bull, representing the peaceful alliance between Croesus and the dynasty of Agamemnon enthroned in Cyme. This alliance had been sealed through two royal marriages, Hermodike I {{circa|800 BC}}The Cambridge Ancient History, edited by John Boederman, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 832 to the Phrygian king Midas and Hermodike II {{circa|600 BC}}Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology, Martin Nilsson, 1983 Univ of California Press, p. 48. to Alyattes of Lydia. Alyattes was Croesus' father and Hermodike II was likely his mother. When he came to power, Croesus minted the first coin depicting two animals. The roaring lion â€“ symbol of Lydia â€“ and the bull â€“ symbol of Hellenic Zeus Perseus 1:2.7 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231141513weblink |date=31 December 2022 }}: "[Hercules] had Agelaus, from whom the family of Croesus was descended." (from the Seduction of EuropaGrimal, Pierre, (1991). The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Kershaw, Stephen. ([Abridged ed.] ed.). London, England: Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0140512357}}. OCLC 25246340.) â€“ are facing each other in truce; Note that hunting lions attack from the rear, not face-to the horns. The imagery of a predator and prey lying down together in peace is reflected in other ancient literature, e.g. "...the calf and the lion and the yearling together..." {{circa|700 BC}} (Isaiah 11:6, see above). The croeseid symbolism of peace between the Greeks of Asia Minor, Lydians and later Persians (under Cyrus the Great) persisted long after Croesus' death â€“ until Darius the Great introduced new coins {{circa|500 BC}}.{{cn|date=February 2021}}The union of Phrygia and Lydia with Aeolian Greeks resulted in regional peace, which facilitated the transfer of ground-breaking technological skills into Ancient Greece; respectively, the phonetic written script{{Dubious|reason=The chronology doesn't work, see Midas; the alphabet was already introduced early in the 8th century BC|date=April 2022}} and the minting of coinage (to use a token currency, where the value is guaranteed by the state).Amelia Dowler, Curator, British Museum; A History of the World;weblink {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122003748weblink |date=22 January 2010 }} Both inventions were rapidly adopted by surrounding nations through further trade and cooperation and have been of fundamental benefit to the progress of civilization.{{cn|date=February 2021}}
V sign
(File:Presidio 27 Sit-Down 14Oct1968 - Image 2.jpg|thumb|US soldiers protest the Vietnam war, 1968)The V sign ({{Unichar|270C|Victory hand}} in Unicode) is a hand gesture, palm outwards, with the index and middle fingers open and all others closed. It had been used to represent victory during the Second World War.WEB,weblink Archived copy, 15 October 2017, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20161015225307weblink">weblink 15 October 2016, During the 1960s in the US, activists against the Vietnam War and in subsequent anti-war protests adopted the gesture as a sign of peace."The Japanese Version (the Sign of Peace)" {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621122852weblink |date=21 June 2008 }}, Icons website. Retrieved 29 July 2007
Paper cranes
{{Further|Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes}}(File:Origami - Crane.svg|thumb|right|150px|Japanese peace symbol.)The crane, a traditional symbol of luck in Japan, was popularized as a peace symbol by the story of Sadako Sasaki (1943â€“1955), a girl who died as a result of the atomic bomb exploding over Hiroshima in 1945. According to the story, popularized through the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,Eleanor Coerr, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, 1977 in the last stages of her illness she started folding paper cranes, inspired by the Japanese saying that one who folded a thousand origami cranes was granted a wish. This made an impression in people's minds. As a result, she is remembered on every 6 August, which is an annual peace day for people all over Japan.{{cn|date=February 2021}}
Japanese Peace Bell

File:Japanese Peace Bell of United Nations.JPG|thumb|right|150px|The Japanese Peace Bell Japanese Peace BellThe Japanese Peace Bell is a United Nations peace symbol. Cast on 24 November 1952, it was an official gift of the Japanese people to the United Nations on 8 June 1954. The symbolic bell of peace was donated by Japan to the United Nations at a time when Japan had not yet been officially admitted to the United Nations. The Japanese Peace Bell was presented to the United Nations by the United Nations Association of Japan.WEB, 21 September 2018, 7 things you didn't know about the Peace Bell,weblink 14 September 2021, ONE, en-US, 14 September 2021,weblink live,
Shalom/salaam
A wordmark of the three words, Hebrew word shalom (Hebrew: |rtl=yes}}), together with the Arabic salaam (Arabic: |rtl=yes}}) and the English word peace has been used as a peace symbol in the Middle East. Shalom and salaam mean {{Gloss|peace}} and are cognates of each other, derived from the Semitic triconsonantal of S-L-M (realized in Hebrew as Å -L-M and in Arabic as S-L-M). The symbol has come to represent peace in the Middle East and an end to the Arabâ€“Israeli conflict. Wall plaques, signs, T-shirts, and buttons are sold with only those words.WEB,weblink weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080704024414weblink">weblink dead, 4 July 2008, Online retail page for the music band called 'emma's revolution', the music band called 'emma's revolution', 30 December 2010, {{Clear}}
See also

White-blue-white flag (Russian anti-war flag)
Green ribbon (Russian anti-war symbol)

References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Peace symbols}}

The Peace Flag
Peace Sign

A Circle and Three Lines
The biography of the Peace Symbol by Ken Kolsbun
The Hoax of the Witch's foot: How the John Birch Society created a myth about the peace sign
Happy Birthday Peace â€“ celebrating 50 years of Gerald Holtom's peace symbol
World's best-known protest symbol turns 50
What is the origin of the peace symbol?
Unveiling of "Peace & Harmony", European Peace Monument â€“ Dedicated to John Lennon
A British Museum expert's view of the CND badge
weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110824051131weblink">The Different Peace Flags of Pisa

{{Anti-war}}

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