International Day Of Peace 🕊️ 21 September
Each year on 21 September, people around the world mark the International Day of Peace - a day to think about peace, friendship, kindness and how we can all help to make our communities a little happier and more understanding.
For our Simon’s Dementia Activities, it also gives us a wonderfully positive theme for reminiscence, conversation, music, creativity and shared memories. Peace can mean many different things: the end of conflict, getting along with our neighbours, sitting quietly in a favourite place, listening to a much-loved song, or simply enjoying the company of someone we care about.
We begin by discovering a few facts about the International Day of Peace before using our Let’s Talk questions to explore what peace means to us personally. We’ll see how many familiar symbols and signs of peace we can recognise, from the dove and olive branch to the peace sign, rainbow and white flag, and meet some famous people associated with peace, reconciliation and humanitarian causes.
There’s plenty of word play too. Our Peace Idioms and Sayings activity challenges us to complete familiar expressions such as peace and quiet, bury the hatchet, live and let live and extend an olive branch. Then our Share a Peaceful Memory activity encourages reminiscence about the people, places and moments that have made us feel safe, contented and at peace.
Get Creative
Our practical activity is to Make a Peace and Friendship Tree. Create colourful doves, hearts, rainbows, flowers, 1960s and 70s-style peace signs and smiley faces. On the reverse, write a short message of peace, friendship, kindness or hope, then hang the decorations together on branches to create a colourful group display. Take a photograph of your finished tree and share it with family, friends and care partners.
Music for Peace
Music has an extraordinary ability to bring people together, so our CST Songs of the Day celebrate some memorable songs carrying messages of peace, hope and understanding:
George Harrison – Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)
John Lennon – Imagine
Eagles – Peaceful Easy Feeling
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
John Lennon & Yoko Ono – Give Peace a Chance
Bob Dylan – Blowin’ in the Wind
Make Me a Channel of Your Peace – Prayer of St Francis
You don’t need to complete every activity. Choose those that suit the person or group you are supporting, allow plenty of time for conversation, and let memories and stories take you wherever they lead.
Most importantly, enjoy being together. Sometimes peace begins with something very simple — a friendly face, a shared memory, a favourite song and time spent in good company.
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