At Nature Sign Design we were recently commissioned to make a peace pole for The Quakers in Kendal Cumbria to reside at their meeting house. They were delighted when they saw the finished product.
The wooden peace pole is hand made from a single piece of 8 foot long oak. This is then routed and painted to ensure the inscription stands out as much as possible. The inscription is in four different languages (Japanese, German, Spanish and English) and says, “May Peace Prevail on Earth” on each side of the pole. Luckily we have a friend of Nature Sign Design’s who is currently studying Japanese, so she was able to translate the message for us.
On beginning the project we did not know much about peace poles. However after a bit of research we found that peace poles have been erected since the mid 1950s, and that they have their origins in Japan. They grew in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, after they were used as non confrontational ways to promote harmony in areas where minorities where being oppressed. It is estimated that there are currently over 100,000 peace poles around the world in over 150 different countries. Peace poles come in all different shapes and sizes, the heaviest are made from granite and can weigh numerous tonnes. The tallest is a carved tree in Ghana, it contains inscriptions in 5 different languages and is over 16 metres tall!
If you would like us to design you a peace pole, you can contact us using any of the details on this page.
