Lossiemouth High School pupils mark International Day of Peace by making origami peace cranes to send far and wide
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LOSSIEMOUTH High School pupils got creative to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace yesterday.
All classes at the school took part in the global Peace Crane Project on Tuesday, September 21, to make origami cranes with messages or symbols of peace written on their wings.
The Lossiemouth pupils will exchange their paper cranes with schools in Australia, the US, Cameroon, Estonia, Poland and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the school is urging members of the local community to get involved in an effort to make 1000 peace cranes for the Children’s Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, Japan.
Principal art teacher Fionna Shearer said: "There are two main strands to the project.
"One part is for the International Day of Peace, based round our partnership with other schools around the world.
"The other aspect of the project is to send 1000 peace cranes to the Children’s Peace Memorial in Hiroshima.
"It is also the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbour this December. I have made a contact with someone who works at the memorial park there. They want to create a display of peace cranes for the floating memorial that sits above the USS Arizona.
"The community cranes would go to either Hiroshima or Pearl Harbour."
Fionna added: "The peace cranes are quite difficult to make at first and do require a bit of perseverance.
"I have an S2 Japan elective class in the art department. Japanese culture is a passion of mine and something I wanted to share with the pupils.
"We started off making the peace cranes as an introduction to origami and it's snowballed from there.
"I had heard years ago about the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who got leukaemia and died. While in hospital she started folding these cranes. They say in Japan that if you fold 1000 of these cranes your wish will be granted. She was only two when the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima.
"She wished for world peace and that no child should ever suffer the consequences of war. The Children’s Peace Memorial in Hiroshima has little shelters where they hang garlands of peace cranes from children across the world. That's what we hope to do to send our peace message.
"It would be really nice to get the whole community involved."
Origami paper can be supplied to anyone keen to help make peace cranes. However, any thin photocopying paper will suffice. The paper needs to measure 15cm x 15cm square so that they stack together when made into garlands. Email admin.lossiehigh@moray-edunet.gov.uk to get involved.
The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the UN General Assembly. The 2021 theme for the International Day of Peace is "Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world". The UN has also declared 2021 as the International Year of Peace and Trust.
