International Day of Peace, or Peace Day, is a day devoted to “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples,” stated a 1981 United Nations resolution that created the International Day of Peace.
This day is recognized Sept. 21 every year, usually commemorated by various events across college campuses and communities across the globe. The music therapy department at Elizabethtown College sponsored their 7th annual Peace Day Recognition.
Students from various music related majors gathered on the BSC terrace to sing and play songs supporting peace and share quotes about peace. Various students and professors stopped to listen and reflect on world peace.
“By having International Peace Day it’s a chance for us all to step back and reflect and see what we can do to make the world a better place,” sophomore Cheryl Errichetti stated.
According to the College’s website, the school is committed “to peace, non-violence, social justice and human dignity.” An event such as this is meant to embody these core values and spread peace in a time when much of the world is ravaged by violence.
“Given the state of a majority of our world right now, I feel like it’s an important aspect of more developed worlds to observe this, recognize it and really just take a look back and look at what we’ve done in different areas,” senior Tamantha Drexel said as to why she felt this event is important.
This event allows music majors to use that which they have learned to reach out to people across campus – and around the world – in order to let others know that they support peace and want to help create it.
“Music helps facilitate peace – and not because it’s a universal language but because it’s a universal phenomenon,” Drexel stated. “Almost every single culture across the world has music. It all has its different nuances, but pop culture has this general reach and that aspect is what can easily be used to help create an aura of well-being.”
The school motto of “Educate for Service,” while not directly talking about world peace may help to create an atmosphere that encourages students to participate in events such as Peace Day.
“I feel like Elizabethtown creates students that care about the world and are just really caring in general, and so the fact that at Elizabethtown we have this, and we stop and reflect. It just shows how great Elizabethtown is as a school,” Errichetti said.
