Tervuren Peace Day
Tervuren Peace Day
Dag van de Vrede
Thursday 22nd May all students of the primary, young and old, took off by foot and headed for the centre of Tervuren. They followed a four-meter tall tree carried by a few students of the Middle School, full of messages, wishes and thoughts for a peaceful future.When the Tervuren church clock stroke 10, we joined the other five participating local schools and made an appearance in our colourful t-shirts and two peace flags under an encouraging rhythm of a group of djémbé players.
The mayor welcomed the small group of World War ll veterans, followed by the Schepen of Onderwijs (Councilor of Education) who opened the one and half hour event with a small speech and a poem.
Next the children were shown part of a theatre play addressing the integration of a family from Afghanistan in the Belgian society. Songs, poems read by the children of the different schools, and an intermezzo by the djémbé players resulted in a spontaneous dancing session initiated by some of our Middle School students. Tervuren experienced that Montessori children know how to celebrate! Great ambiance.
The microphone was now handed over to Emil Pedersen and Sasha Thys, who, supported by two ‘peace girls’, Selene Grosso and Pénélope Mabille, read a really beautiful ‘What is Peace?’ poem. Being created by the students in English, Emil had translated it into a very poetic Dutch version.
At the end of this article, you can also enjoy both the English and Dutch version.
Other poems followed, trees were planted and when reaching the end of the celebration, accompanied by the last song, symbolical a collection of large balloons were let go into the blue sky. This was a very appropriate and serene way of bringing past and present together, whilst hoping for a lasting peaceful future.
On the way back to school, we enjoyed a pick-nick lunch, discovered new aspects of this undiscovered part of the park and were able to utilize some of this seemingly never-ending amount of energy children carry with them.
At two o’clock we were back ‘home’ and used the last part of the day to let it all sink in: a lot of impressions.
In the forthcoming weeks the poems created by the students of the different groups and schools can be found in the windows of Tervuren shops, cafés and restaurants. When you have a few minutes to spare, go for a stroll and enjoy the thoughts that have gone into these creations.
Peace is an old tree standing on a mountaintop,
Peace is the leaves falling off the trees in autumn,
Vrede is sneeuw die smelt en tot beekjes wordt gevormd in de lente,
Vrede is de schoonheid van een nieuw sneeuw-vlokje,
Vrede is een oeroude boom op de top van een berg,
Vrde is de blaadjes die van de bomen vallen in de herfst,
