The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") provides an
opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to
create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was
established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to
coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. The first
Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982.
In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared September
21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace.
By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted
itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to
work in cooperation for this goal. During the discussion of
the U.N. Resolution that established the International Day
of Peace, it was suggested that:
"Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and
strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all
nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to
all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations,
is a living instrument in the service of peace and should
serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly
pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment,
above all interests or differences of any kind, is to
peace."
Since its inception, Peace Day has marked our personal and
planetary progress toward peace. It has grown to include
millions of people in all parts of the world, and each year
events are organized to commemorate and celebrate this day.
Events range in scale from private gatherings to public
concerts and forums where hundreds of thousands of people
participate.
Anyone, anywhere can celebrate Peace Day. It can be as
simple as lighting a candle at noon, or just sitting in
silent meditation. Or it can involve getting your
co-workers, organization, community or government engaged in
a large event. The impact if millions of people in all parts
of the world, coming together for one day of peace, is
immense.
International Day of Peace is also a Day of Ceasefire –
personal or political. Take this opportunity to make peace
in your own relationships as well as impact the larger
conflicts of our time. Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire
would mean to humankind.
The GCP event was set for the 24 hour GMT day, and thus does
include most or all of the events planned around the world.
The result is Chisquare 86157.972 on 86400 df, for p = 0.719
and Z = -0.236.
The graph shows a consistent deviation throughout the day,
and the accumulated deviation is remarkably similar to past
events set for Peace Day.
It is important to keep in mind that we have only a tiny
statistical
effect, so that it is always hard to distinguish signal from
noise. This means that every "success" might be largely
driven by chance, and every "null" might include a real
signal overwhelmed by noise. In the long run, a real effect
can
be identified only by patiently accumulating replications of
similar analyses.
