The Japanese and British Ambassadors at Sunflower Montessori's Peace Day Tea Ceremony;
On Tuesday 10 August 2021, Sunflower Montessori in Findel hosted a Peace Day Tea Ceremony, with the ambassadors of Britain and Japan in attendance as they unveiled 1,000 paper cranes, presented a traditional tea ceremony and entertained visitors with poems, songs and fan dances.
The Peace Day Tea Ceremony was held as part of Sunflower Montessori's summer camp.
According to Sam O'Dea of Sunflower Montessori, who spoke with Chronicle.lu in advance of the event, "One of our themes in summer camp this year is A Celebration of Peace and Paper. Commemorating Hiroshima Peace Day (6 August), we will look at the story of Sadako Sasaki who lived in Hiroshima during WWII. She was 2 years old and lived 2km away from where the atomic bomb was dropped. She wasn’t injured at that time, but later developed leukaemia. Whilst in hospital she heard of the legend whereby a sick person folding 1,000 paper cranes would soon get well again. She decided to make these cranes herself."
She went on to explain "In the Alizeti summer camp, we have committed to folding 1,000 paper cranes in her memory. We will talk about Sadako’s story and the international peace movement that followed culminating in the Children’s Peace Monument. We will think about PEACE and what it means to each of us. We love that our children and families at Sunflower Montessori have such compassionate hearts. Masahiro, Sadako’s surviving brother, said recently, “One compassionate heart can create small peace around you. Small peace can then lead to big peace in the end. Sadako taught us how important it is to have a compassionate heart. Folding paper cranes can be the first step to connect our hearts together.” Our Sunflower family is honoured to connect our family heart to that of Sadako’s family, Japan and children all over the world. We join you in the wish engraved on the Peace monument, “This is our cry, this is our prayer, Peace in the world.”’
