Written by Kaitlin Harness (Class of 2022)

Photos by Naomi Seng, Thuy Nguyen, and Yee Kit Chan (Class of 2022)

Video by Rachel Blythe (Class of 2022)

In 1981, The UN General Assembly established September 21st as the International Day of Peace. This year, on September 21st, the 5th and 6th grade classes of Instilling Goodness Girls’ School hosted Peace Day for teachers and their fellow IGDVS schoolmates. The event glowed under these young leaders! Gathering (while keeping distanced) in between the school buildings, the elementary school classes each presented different things to promote world peace. Students read out what peace means to them, recited haikus they had written about peace, danced to a peace jingle, and performed songs on recorders. Led by Jin Jr Shr, students of her high school meditation class explained and recited the mantra Om Mani Padme Hong, with the audience chanting along. To conclude the event, the students “broke bread”, sharing bread and hummus with each other under the cool shade of the sycamores. 

“What was your favorite part of Peace Day?” (5-6th Grade)

“We enjoyed doing performances for Peace Day”

“It was nice to make homemade hummus for the other grades to spread on the bread after “breaking bread” together :)”

The 2-4th graders posted peace messages on a poster drawn by the 5-6th grade girls: “What does peace mean to you?”

Peace Day means being kind.

Samadhi Jacobson (2nd Grade)

A day of peace and love.

Junior (2nd Grade)

To me Peace Day means to be kind and to not do things that will hurt people. It also means not to judge people if they are different skin color like me. I have brown skin color and nobody judges me. And it means you have good friends because they have your back. Yay!

Zacari Obenyah (3rd Grade)

Peace in This World
Peace is all we want
We pray for peace in this world
Peace is not forgot

Peace means to me that we are all equal and we shouldn’t fight. We should focus on what we love. Happy Peace Day!

Bayelle Blanc (3rd Grade)

It means that even though we have different skin colors, we can still make peace.

Yasoda Govinda (4th Grade)

Peace means that everyone is in harmony and no one will fight.

Celeste Zhou (4th Grade)

Likewise, the K-1 students celebrated Peace Day with a poster of vibrantly colored peace signs.

That day, it also happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival! The elementary school students presented lanterns they crafted with love to their parents.

Happy International Peace Day and happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Special thanks to Ms. Mark and the 5th and 6th graders for hosting the event.